The Mind of A Six-Year-Old

[Xuc Xac]

I’m dealing with a manuscript which has a six-year-old confusing a statue with a real person, and trying to use band-aids to heal the statue.

My question is, would this be reasonable for a six-year-old?

Absolutely not. You're talking about a kid in 1st grade. A kid that old who couldn't tell a statue was a statue and not a person would be referred to the school counselor to be evaluated mentally. They might stick bandaids on a statue to play (because stickers are fun!), but not because they genuinely believe the statue is a person. They know dolls aren't real babies but they are happy to pretend to feed them and hold them. If the statue isn't lifelike enough to fool an adult, then a normal 6 year old isn't going to think it's real either. A kid might be more sensitive to the uncanny valley effect from a creepy statue, but that's not the same thing.

From my own vague memories of childhood, and from watching my kids (not quite 6, but close), I feel like a child might think they think a band-aid would heal a person or statue, but know inwardly that it won't really. Sort of a half-conscious knowledge that they are pretending, but yet thinking it real.

I could see a 6 year old thinking a bandaid would be a good way to tape together a broken statue because you can tape broken things together and bandaids are tape made for sticking on arms and legs. I don't think any normal 6 year old would expect the statue to heal, but they might be overly optimistic about how well the bandaids would hold it together.

Does your 3.5-year-old also believe that raindeer fly a man to every child in the world in a single night? It's definitely possible for a kid 30 months older to believe a band-aid can fix a statue. Knowing languages is a completely separate thing and is not relevant here.

Kids have experience with "statues" and other artificial people in the form of dolls and other toys. They do arts and crafts projects with tape and glue and get bandaids put on their own little injuries. Very few kids have any direct reindeer experience, they are never allowed to do a close inspection of Santa's sleigh, and adults that they trust tell them very earnestly that it's true, so they accept the Santa story.