Possible Relationships between Realism and Comprehension in Elementary School Age Children

Abstract

Young children lack the ability to differentiate their own thoughts from the external world. Therefore, they expect their opinions and understandings to be shared universally. As they get older, children begin to realize that what they perceive and what others perceive are different. This master thesis examines the relationship between a child’s listening comprehension and their ability to understand realism. The author hypothesizes that a greater understanding of objective reality would impact a child’s listening comprehension. To conduct the study, 32 elementary school children aged from six to eleven that attend an after-school daycare were tested for a five-week period. Students were given four different tests, including a modality test, a drawing test, listening comprehension, and a dream questionnaire, to determine if they could use realistic modes of reasoning and ability to differentiate their own point of view from objective reality. Of the sample, 64% showed considerable amount of subjectivism. 50% had listening comprehension skills 5 or more months above their age level. The remaining 50% were found to be at or below their age level. Only 1 student showed below average score in the drawing test. All others performed at their age, or above. While there was a trend, no statistically significant relationship between listening comprehension and realism scores were found. The author suggests a larger sample size might yield different results.