can a child think and act as an adult? if given the same treatment and environment as an adult?

Question

i'm doing an interior design dissertation that involve children, a space that has the same exact replica of our normal environment but in a smaller scale to accomodate children, it could be a restaurant, an office, cinema, etc. i was hoping that when a child is exposed to what our normal routine are, they are capable in dealing with everyday difficulties. it can be a way to educate a child to think or at least behave like us, in dealing with problem the sane way. and thus lesser child abuse cases.
please provide your thoughts and help me identify faults and weakness in my proposal.

Answer 1

Yep.

Answer 2

First off I think it is great to set up an environment in a classroom with these things that we encounter in everyday life, but you set these things up to familiarize children with things that we use and do each day not in hopes of making them think or behave like adults. I think that is expecting way too much out of a child. No one can expect a child to act like an adult nor should they want a child to act like an adult. Let them be children for goodness sakes. This is not a healthy thing for kids. I don't think it will help at all with child abuse cases. That has nothing to do with the kids and has everything to do with an illness of the parent that is doing the abuse. I think if you are wanting to do this then do it for fun. This has to be the most absurd thinking I have ever heard of. I suggest taking some child development classes if you are a Teacher or child care worker. You have it all backwards. Children need to be children and when they do turn 18 and are adults then you can exepct them to act like an adult then. This is where pyschological problems begin when people expect so much out of our little ones.

Answer 3

Of course a child can't think and act as an adult. We would all be called adults when little instead of children. There are some children who act like little adults because they have an adult who they mimic, but otherwise children are children and not adults. They are not capable of dealing with everyday difficulties...are they suppose to go about handling funeral arrangements for a parent who has passed on, or opening the right banking account and using money wisely, when we ourselves as adults don't even know what to do?? Thre will always be child abuse cases in this world because some jerk doesn't know how to handle their anger or just doesn't want help with their addictions.

Answer 4

Contrary to treatment nature does evolve and follow procedure, a child will actually perform growth and search for loved ones, including couple. A healthy child can bemuse from early conduction into adulthood but will certainly refrain from certain activities even if shown it is proper and good, given he feels love and lives into the righteous harmony of a home. Per example, he will not show his legs saying he would prefer to have hair on then before she is born, and she will definitely not say she prefers to have sex before her older cousin or aunt. That is ecology, and only very evolved and nature intended people use their intuition that way and no other. Some children will have sex at 10 or will shoot others at 13, that is virtue being shown in a different way, also it can be understood as a withdrawal of intentions. Environment and treatment can be taken differently considering attitude and personality, with attitude the little idea of mock can be disaster and without a mature personality the idea behind facts is only fun, not science or experience.
Hope my ideas bring some explanation to your question. Have a nice day.

Answer 5

Do you really think thta 5 year olds are capable of raising a family and running a house? Give me a break!
Children can imitate from adults, but they won't have the full understanding on how to handle everday adult life. Their cognitive, social, language and creative developmental domains are not mature enough to be able to act like an adult. I don't see how this will lessen child abuse cases. Child Abuse happens because of the adult, not because of the children. Children go through developmental stages which you can't force to develop into an adult. Their nature and nurturing might help them to an extent, but there is now way that they will think or behave like adults.
You need to do some reasearch on children first.

Answer 6

Sometimes, in some situations, children may think and/or act as adults would. It depends on the ages of the children you're working with, and what you're trying to get them to do.

Children see the world differently from adults, and differently from children at other stages of development. If you're interested in the stages of development, a good place is to start is with an overview of developmental psychology.

I'm not sure I see the connection, though, between the physical environment and the decrease in child abuse cases.

Answer 7

this theory is very possible,children's play can show you that they learn very quickly from observing the behaviour of adults as well as their peers and older children. once the children are given the opportunity to explore their environment freely instead of being forced to learn a particular activity, that is. if they are forced, this will feel a chore to the children and as a result the children will lose interest and the process will be counterproductive.

however your use of "sane way" is rather desturbing, children deserve alot more credit that you are given them, they are incredibly more intelligent and are more than capable of "thinking and acting sanely"

i do not understand how carrying out the above will reduce child abuse cases without taking away children's childhood. instead educating children age apporiately, as well as educating the adults in signs and methods for reporting abuse is much more beneficial.

Answer 8

A child can act as an adult as long as they are only being asked to act. They are not emotionally mature enough to think and feel as an adult. Nursery equipment and even toys involve children acting as adults eg. play kitchens, dressing up outfits, play shops. However there are places and times when survival depends on children maturing quicker, ie when orphaned in countries where they are left to fend for themselves. I don't really see how small scale interior design based on adult world can lessen child abuse. But what your proposing sound like role play areas in nursery's (IE home corner) or play therapy in hospitals. Children use play to explore how to deal with real life.

Answer 9

Children are not adults. They do not have the emotional maturity to behave like adults.

And as far as lessening cases of child abuse-- children are not abused b/c they do not behave like adults

Children are abused b/c the abuser want to take advantage of someone weaker than them.

No interior design will help quell that.

Answer 10

I believe children are more capable of adult behavior than modern society gives them credit. People today will argue that children are not capable of certain behaviors or logical thought; however, if you look at past history, children as young as 5 & 6 were fully capable of caring for all their younger siblings, cooking dinner, and running the house after their mothers died And kids at age 13 were perfectly capable of starting their own families and being responsible. This to me says that the argument that children at these ages are not mentally (biologically) capable of behaving as adults is a total myth. Childish behavior is caused by encouragement and acceptance of that behavior from the surrounding adults. If the childish behavior is reprimanded, the proper expected behavior modeled by the adults (and other children / peers), and it is clearly laid out that the proper behavior is the only acceptable behavior, even young children will conform.

Note that just turning them loose in a mini village without adult supervision and reprimand will result not in an adult society but in total anarchy as natural instinct is 'strongest survives'. They have mini villages (play towns) all over our state and I see exactly what happens there if adults do not step in. The only way you could achieve what you are presenting is over an extended period of time in a completely controlled environment with appropriate adult modeling. This would be a hard experiment if you are thinking of using real children. You would have to control not only activites at your facility but at home and throughout the outside world. Maybe if you can find parents like myself that already raise their kids this way (to be prepared adults and not adult children). Also, possibly think in terms of seeing if you can change their behavior while at your facility only, i.e. this is the expected behavior when you are here (no matter what it is elsewhere) and see if you can pose a control there. I would think to succeed this would still require extended times at the facility as well as enforcement of behavioral patterns at home.

Answer 11

I believe that the enviroment has nothing to do with how a child works. Because a kid will be a kid no matter where he/she is. On the other hand what could make a child more mature is the actions that a child experiances. If he /she is in a bad enviroment social wise then it will affect the child!