Why You Shouldn’t Reason With A 6-Year-Old

So why do children have such hilarious reasoning? “Parents have to understand that children’s brains are still developing,” says Sarah Ockwell-Smith, parenting expert and author of The Gentle Discipline Book.

“Logical, abstract, hypothetical thinking starts kicking in from the ages of seven to 11. Children of five and six have a small degree of logical thinking, but it’s a mature skill that’s still developing.”

What children do have at this age are schemas – a term introduced by Jean Piaget, the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development in children. He showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults and go through a series of stages of intellectual growth. As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas are developed and old schemas are changed or modified.

“For example, if you have a tabby cat called Bob, your child may think all tabby cats are called Bob,” explains Sarah Ockwell-Smith. “Or if their Dad is called Dave and has glasses that all men with glasses are called Dave.”

Lisa, of hugely popular, must-read Instagram account, Mummy Piggles, shares her daughters’ fabulous view of the world.

“Isla isn’t quite able to separate fact from opinion yet, but does have a very strong moral compass which she uses to guide how strongly she feels,” she told the Huffington Post UK. “For example, as part of her learning about the world’s religions, she recently visited a church. Sadly, she got her facts confused and insisted that ‘people who believe in Jesus are called Diwalis, people who believe in Santa are presenteers and people who believe in the tooth fairy are called tooths’.

“When I tried to correct her, I got told off for disrespecting someone’s beliefs. It didn’t matter that she thought she could just make up this information and that she was wrong, as far as she was concerned, I was being rude. We often refer to her as the moral oracle, because to her if it feels right, then she will wholeheartedly believe that it is.”

Sarah Ockwell-Smith says: “If  you really need to explain something, use verbal and physical cues. That’s why reception-age children are taught maths with physical objects like beads or by counting buses, because they can struggle with hypothetical thinking and need tangible things to see and touch.

“But children’s way of seeing the world is very sweet and I would just enjoy it.”

Indeed we will.

We’ve collected some fabulous examples of kids’ ‘logic’, from the simply inspired to fabulous word confusions. Enjoy.

Believe me!