“I’m just pulling your leg,” I told a six year old girl after joking with her one night at church. She looked down at her leg, looked up at me, and exclaimed, “No you’re not!?”
This funny little moment coincided with one of my first classes on child development, and I’ll never forget this real life illustration of the thinking of small children. It’s easy as adults to forget how we thought as children, and the ways our thought processes have changed over time. Children view the world and process information very differently than adults, and a basic knowledge of child development can assist ministry leaders in effectively teaching and ministering to children.
Elementary Ages 5 – 10
Young children are very concrete and literal in their thinking – as the above example of the six year old little girl illustrates. Early elementary children often are unable to fully understand abstract concepts such as sarcasm, metaphors, and hypothetical scenarios. Abstract thinking is often limited to actions or characteristics. For example, “honesty” means telling the truth, even if I’ll get in trouble. “Love” is how Jesus died for me, even though I disobey Him. “Kindness” is letting someone else use a toy first, even though I want to play with it too.
During childhood, children also develop the cognitive trait of reversibility – the ability to “think back” and remember past events sequentially. A child can retrace his steps in an attempt to locate a lost toy, but he cannot yet think “forward” through hypothetical scenarios or draw conclusions about the outcomes of future events.
Oftentimes it can be easy to think a child should “know better,” because the outcomes of certain actions or decisions seem obvious to us as adults. However, we may need to take a step back and remember that kids are still learning many different social, cognitive, and life skills. While we provide consistent and caring correction, we also must remember that sometimes kids really don’t know better yet. Part of our job is to teach them!
Elementary age children are also developing the cognitive ability of decentration, the ability to consider more than one attribute of an object or person at time. For example, a child begins to understand that her aunt is also her mother’s sister, or understand that God is both a loving Father and a perfect Judge. God cannot overlook disobedience, but He also loves us, and Jesus died willingly for our sins.
Children are also developing the cognitive skill of seriation, which is the ability to put things in a logical order or sequence. For example, putting a series of events in sequential order or lining up similar objects smallest to largest. The Gospel itself can be understood as a logical order or sequence. God created everything and made good rules; humans disobey God; sin separates us from God; Jesus came to earth as fully God and fully human to be our Savior; and we can turn to Him for forgiveness of our sins and begin a relationship with God. Is it any surprise that in the elementary years we see the Gospel beginning to “click” with kids, as they ask insightful questions and express a desire to follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
Elementary age children also have a natural desire to set and achieve goals. Every kid wants a way to shine and feel a sense of accomplishment. Recognizing achievement, hard work, and intrinsic traits can help kids feel valued and seen. It is important to acknowledge both a child’s natural giftings and her efforts, even if the outcomes of her efforts aren’t always as smooth or immediate as she would like. Recognizing dedication and determination in the face of difficulties helps kids build resilience as they work toward goals.
Children’s attention spans can be calculated at one minute per year of life. As we teach elementary age children, we need to structure lessons in 5 – 10 minute increments. Keeping lessons engaging through active and interactive learning techniques, teaching to a variety of learning styles, and providing hands-on learning opportunities are vital to teaching elementary age children well. We also need to clarify our classroom expectations and repeat them often, if not weekly. Children need clear, simple guidelines for behavior, which are repeated often, and consistently followed.
During the elementary years children develop and grow in many wonderful ways. Adults have the opportunity to lay a foundation of faith that stands the test of time in the life of a child. Understanding how children think, grow, and develop can help children’s ministry leaders more effectively reach and minister to children at all stages of development.
First published here on Faithly.
KidMin with Dr. Val and Dr. Virginia 