how is a child's understanding of the world different to that of an adults?

Question

anyone have an idea? what's the differences of perception between the two?

Answer 1

yes, it has to be . children see, children accept. only adults question, theorise and hypothesise.

we tell teh kids father christmas is real... how many years before they question it...

as kids all we had to do was entertain ourselves.. as adults we have to learn responsibility, obligations, and all about debt... and relationships... and families...

kids see mum, dad, and the rest of the world... only as adults can we see the stratification of society, by class and by racial perception... by location and income...

kids are hungry, they raid the fridge, they have no comprehension how the food gets there, or who pays for the electricity to keep it cold..or who made the fridge, ...

adults see the links, because we have to.

Answer 2

It would be useful to read books by (or about ) the work of Piaget and also Bruner - both are cognitive developmental theorists. These will give you plenty of information about how children's thinking changes between 0 and about 11 or so.

There are some interesting experiments on issues such as 'conservation' i.e. the understanding that something is the same despite its changed shape (e.g. fluid in tall beaker and same amount in short, fat beaker). Also 'centration' is an interesting idea of Piaget's i.e. the ability to consider more than one attitribute at any one time (e.g. height x width, or different colours/shapes). This also links with egocentrism.

Thinking changes considerably round about the ages of 2 years old, then at around 4, again at 7/8 years old and at about 11 years old. [All this needs to be considered in relation to language development and general physical development.]

You may find some ideas about depth/distance perception and other aspects in general psych books e.g. Gibson & Walk, Bower, Fantz......etc
Bear in mind that for all the above theoretical/experimental stuff, there are criticisms and more modern additions to our understanding. ~RJS

Answer 3

The amount of information the human has to survive with.
To the child 0-4 age, the perception is that the world revolves around the mother.
4-18 age the child perception is the world revovles around the family unit.
18-? the world does not revovle around anyone person, but many
worlds are invovled that are linked to other worlds of perceptions,
creating an infinity of perceptions.
The sad part is when the child grows up wanting the world revovle around themselves and when they grow to adulthood they become High maintenace humans who want the world and it's many orbits of other worlds to revovle around themselves. (spoiled rotten to the core)

Answer 4

A child simply SEES things: it has no pre-concieved ideas about what they are experiencing. Everything is new and interesting and to be explored.

Whereas adults have alerady seen things and have learnt reactions to things that children have not yet.

I live in South Korea and often feel like a child as I am seeing so many new things and new ways! I am always asking, "What is this?", "How did this come to be?" like any child would!

Unfortunately the things I question are so taken for granted by the Koreans that they have no answers - for them it simply "is" and they are too grown up to question it!!

Answer 5

i often think about this. i just turned 18, and i think about the decisions i made as a child (10-15ish) like, where i went to highschool and who my friends were, and i realized how foolish i was. its terrible because you cant tell a kid how something is, the world is this way and NOT this way. they just wont listen, they hear you, but dont listen. they also cant detect sarcasm, have no independence, etc. as a child you dont look at the world as a whole, all you care about is day to day things; i wonder whats in my lunch today? what am i going to do for my birthday? the older you get, the less important minor things like these become. you see the world as a rat race, as it really is. its quite ugly actually. i miss the innocence.

Answer 6

Much of what our understanding of the world is comes from others outside the center of our worlds. Children learn what is within their realm, it's only when their realm expands that their perceptions change and become more complex.

Answer 7

A child's vision of he world is not tainted by prejudice, suspicion or all the other ills that make up the adult world. Let's hope they don't get disilusioned too soon and lose that innocence that is so endearing in a child.

Answer 8

The way children perceive the world and their understanding of is effected by their stage of development. It is best described by Kohlberg who said that a child goes through various stages of moral development as they grow older becoming progressively more advanced in their thinking. The link below should help.

http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/kohlberg.html

Answer 9

Children percieve things as they really are,they have no preconcieved ideas or prejudices.All children see the world as a wonderful place,it's a shame that this innocence must end

Answer 10

Simplified explanation:
Experience. Adults have had it and therefore get desensitised. Children are getting it for the first time. Everything is new and wonderful. Or it should be.