“Your child’s behaviour is not rational….”
Quote from a website (can’t remember where, sorry)
I read this quote in an article on child behaviour and I remember thinking, “That is so true!”
Before the age of about 5/6 years of age, all the information our child is getting is going straight into the subconscious for processing, catogerising and understanding life. They are creating filters to enable them to interpret life. Basically, they’re trying to figure out how life even works.
Children need to create these filters before they can learn to get to the point of being able to judge, reason and use logic to determine their responses (behaviour).
Your child’s behaviour won’t be rational because rationale is a function of the conscious brain, and before the age of 5/6 years of age, that ability hasn’t even really come into full swing.
We need to be patient with the reality of where our child’s behaviour is at and stop expecting them to live through our 20/30/40 something years of logic and reasoning skills (heck, even we aren’t entirely logical about our reactions – drinking, smoking, chocolate habits…ring any bells?)
Keeping it real.
Jackie