Buzz
Children’s thinking processes are distinct from those of adults. They haven’t yet grasped all the nuances of how the world functions, so they interpret things in a wholly different way. However, this stage doesn’t last long. It is generally believed that by the age of 11, most children possess mental abilities similar to adults, though they may not have the experience or wisdom to fully apply these skills yet.
So, in what ways do children differ from adults? Is it true that they must learn everything necessary for surviving as an adult, or are some traits innate? Interestingly, while children may struggle with certain tasks compared to adults, there are also surprising ways in which they excel.
10. Reality vs. Imagination
Children frequently mix up things that didn’t actually happen with those they imagined. They often have difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. If you were to ask a child about an imaginary event, and then revisit the topic later, they would likely insist that the event truly occurred. Additionally, if you ask a child a leading question, like “How was the pizza you ate yesterday?” implying an event that didn’t happen, they will often provide a detailed, imaginative response as if it were real.
There are limits to this ability. While children might easily believe the fantasies they create on their own, they tend to be more skeptical when someone else tells them something hard to believe. Researchers Jacqueline Woolley and Maliki Ghossainy tested children’s reactions to made-up information and found that kids were just as likely to doubt what they were told as they were to believe it. They also suggest that this inability to always distinguish between fantasy and reality may stem from children not yet fully understanding the scope of their knowledge—a skill that develops with age.
9. Understanding Object Permanence
Imagine you knew that something was hidden right in front of you, but then someone moved it to a different location and hid it there while you watched. It would seem simple to find it again, since you saw where it was moved, right?
However, if you repeatedly hid a toy under a blanket right in front of a baby, and after each time the baby found it, you moved it to a different blanket nearby, the baby would continue searching under the original blanket despite knowing it had been moved. This can be hard to believe without witnessing it yourself. This typically happens until a baby is between 10 and 12 months old, after which they no longer have trouble with this concept.
Why does this happen? The renowned developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who first discovered this phenomenon, proposed that children under the age of 10 to 12 months don’t yet grasp the idea of “object permanence,” which is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they’re out of sight. If a baby doesn’t realize that an object still exists after it disappears, their only memory is that pulling the blanket revealed the toy in the past.
8. Language Acquisition
Children have an amazing ability to pick up languages quickly, while for adults, it takes a great deal of effort and time to hold even a basic conversation in a non-native language. Even more remarkable, children from bilingual families can learn two languages simultaneously without any formal instruction. This seems almost unbelievable when you consider that it might take years of dedicated lessons for an adult to become fluent in a language.
The renowned linguist Noam Chomsky proposes that children acquire language with the aid of a theoretical mechanism called the LAD, or “language acquisition device.” This concept suggests that the brain has a special tool that helps young children rapidly learn and absorb language. Chomsky’s research also highlighted that all languages share similar structures, such as verbs, nouns, and basic sentence constructions like yes/no questions, indicating a universal tool that links all languages. He observed that children instinctively grasp that most sentences follow a “subject-verb-object” structure.
What happens to the LAD as we age? It’s believed that the LAD weakens significantly after a critical period in early childhood, which is essential for language learning. There is ongoing debate about when this period ends, with some researchers arguing it lasts until around 18 years of age, while others suggest it closes much earlier, at around nine years old.
7. Conservation
If you were to pour water from a wide glass into a tall glass, you would instinctively know that the amount of water remains unchanged, since no additional water was added in the process.
However, children under the age of seven often struggle with this concept. They might believe that the tall glass holds more water, even if both glasses contain the same amount. This misunderstanding is thought to be due to a lack of “reversibility,” meaning that younger children don’t yet grasp that transferring liquid between containers doesn’t alter its amount. It’s also suggested that they struggle to balance the concepts of “height” and “width,” focusing on one aspect while ignoring the other.
6. Recognizing Faces
If you've visited a zoo, you may have noticed how difficult it is to tell animals of the same species apart due to their similar appearance. This happens because your brain isn’t trained to differentiate between two monkeys, for example. However, very young infants haven't yet developed the ability to distinguish between human faces, and are still capable of recognizing faces from other species. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as “perceptual narrowing.”
Research has shown that infants as young as six months old can distinguish between unfamiliar monkey faces and those they’ve already seen. By nine months, however, this ability fades, and they become as poor at it as adults. Interestingly, at nine months, infants can still differentiate between two similar but distinct monkey faces.
5. Abstract Thinking
Children under the age of 11 tend to focus their thoughts on the tangible, concrete world around them, struggling to process problems that require thinking beyond what is directly visible. Their ability to reason abstractly is still developing.
In an experiment conducted by psychologist Rudolph Schaffer, when nine-year-olds were asked where they would place a third eye, all of them responded that it should go on their forehead—an impractical choice, as they already have two eyes facing that direction. However, when asked the same question, 11-year-olds suggested placing it on their hands to help them see around corners—an idea the younger children couldn't conceive.
4. Drawing What They Know, Not What They See
Young children often struggle with drawing as accurately as adults, not due to a lack of skill, but because they haven't yet developed the fine motor control to draw precisely. Developmental psychologists N.H. Freeman and R. Janikoun conducted an experiment where children between the ages of five and nine were given a cup with a handle in front of them. The cup was placed in such a way that the handle wasn’t visible, and the children were asked to draw exactly what they saw.
Interestingly, children between the ages of five and seven often include the handle in their drawings, even though they can’t see it, whereas children older than that tend not to draw it. This difference highlights the distinction between children’s thinking and adult reasoning. If an adult were asked to draw exactly what they see, they would omit the handle, but children draw it because they know it should be there.
3. Generalization
If you tie a baby’s leg to a mobile using a string, the baby quickly learns that by kicking their leg, they can make the mobile move. The baby will remember this action if placed in the same crib again at a later time. There’s nothing extraordinary about this learning process.
However, if the crib is changed in the slightest way, such as placing a different-colored blanket on the side, the baby will forget how to make the mobile move. This happens because infants lack the ability to generalize their experiences, so they only recall how to interact with the mobile if the exact conditions remain the same.
2. Theory of Mind
Theory of mind refers to the understanding that others think differently from you and that not everyone shares the same knowledge as you. However, young children do not grasp this concept, as they believe that everything they know is also known by everyone else. This idea was explored by a group of researchers, including Simon Baron-Cohen (cousin of actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen), who developed an experiment called the Sally-Anne task.
In this experiment, a child watches as one person leaves the room. While the child is watching, another person hides a toy in full view of the child. The child is then asked where they think the person who left the room would look for the toy. Younger children tend to answer that the person would look where the toy was hidden, even though the person has no knowledge of the hiding place.
1. Morals
As an adult, you likely have a well-formed sense of morality, understanding the importance of acting with good intentions, following the law, and occasionally realizing that rules may be bent. However, a child's moral reasoning is not as nuanced. Young children are believed to base their moral decisions on avoiding punishment, later progressing to the idea that good behavior is rewarded. Ultimately, their moral reasoning matures to resemble the more complex understanding of adults.
For example, one study asked children which scenario was worse: breaking many glasses by accident or breaking one while being mischievous. While the logical answer would be that intentionally breaking a glass is worse, younger children, with less developed morals, often claim that breaking many glasses is worse because more of the ‘naughty’ action took place.
