“Dear myself, today I am 7 years old and I am writing you this letter to help you remember the promises I made at the age of reason and also to remind you of what I want to become. Thus begins the letter that Margaret receives on her 40th birthday ”. This letter, which she wrote to herself, is the subject of the film “The Age of Reason”, played by Sophie Marceau. It illustrates this period when the child begins to reason and distinguishes between what is right and wrong.

After infancy and the period of asserting oneself through the expression of “no” and of opposition, a period that all parents remember with more or less humor, comes a moment of calm when the child is in a middle ground. Between childhood, where he had to acquire language, movements, socialization and adolescence.

According to Maria Montessori, it is a stage of great stability in physical growth (it all depends on the children). The body lengthens harmoniously, without the somewhat unsightly peaks experienced by adolescence. The only big changes are the loss of baby teeth and maybe the wearing of braces.

Between 6 and 12 years old, the child therefore enjoys a lull, an emotionally soothed moment. This allows him to look to the outside world and develop his rational thinking.

Each child evolves at his own pace and it would be quite useless to rely on generalities of development to support a child in his singularity. With these recommendations in mind, however, educators attempt to guide adults in their understanding of this period when the child becomes an “intellectual explorer”.

After having experienced his 5 senses, in early childhood, he now uses his intellectual capacities to establish links, relationships between objects and concepts.

Now is the perfect time for the child to develop:

• his ability to reason and understand abstract concepts;
• his ability to imagine.

He now likes to ask “why” and get an answer. On pain of hearing the question repeated a good ten times until an answer is obtained. And the “because. Without explanation behind does not work. Better to answer “I don’t know”.

The child at this age likes to understand the mechanisms and understand the functioning. It also gives him much more joy if he can do it on his own by observing. Reading a list of words bores him but sorting the words, analyzing them, finding their common rules fascinates him.

It is therefore good not to answer all the “why” and let the child discover for himself, leaving him a great deal of autonomy without his reasoning. Thus, he strengthens his self-confidence and his ability to build his own knowledge.

Previously the child developed his capacity for imagination thanks to his senses. He imitated or pretended to be like the older ones or the adults around him. But it was still concrete and involved at least one of his five senses.

Now he can use abstract notions and therefore access “the vastness of space” or “millions of stars in the sky”. He likes to discover cause and effect relationships, he can project himself into the past or the future. We can finally ask him if he will want to continue basketball all week, the notion of duration and that of time are acquired.

By the age of 8, children understand the permanence of death.

This allows them to also understand the ephemeral nature of things and people. They also learn that everything on earth moves one day and that it is a universal law. It is not uncommon for him to approach this subject with their grandparents very directly by telling them “you are going to die soon”. They now know that life is not eternal.

The notions of justice and injustice, good and evil are very important to them.

The rules to follow, the verbal and physical limits to respect, indicated by the adults, allow them to grow in safety. However, they begin to ask why they exist and it is better to have a logical reasoning to bring to them, otherwise they will not find their agreement.

It is at this age that many children wish to have a pet. A friend whom they will have to take care of, feed, walk. Around 10 years old, the child is now autonomous and is able to empathize with the animal. This relationship can help him grow thanks to the responsibilities that it will require of him.

In his book, ” An animal and life is more beautiful ”, Jean-Luc Vuillemenot specifies that an animal can “become an educational tool on which parents rely to develop the child’s sense of responsibility (older children can get involved in care) as well as otherness. “

Thanks to the dog or the cat, the child understands what a different being is, with other needs and modes of functioning other than his own.