At what age do children start to differentiate myth and reality?

Brad H: At what age do children start to differentiate myth and reality?
We’re all taught myths as children as a means of providing explanations for things we don’t have a hope of understanding due to our level of cognitive development. Things such as creation myths, for example, help parents answer their kid’s questions without requiring the child to first go to college. 😉

So… At what age do we start to have the cognitive abilities necessary to understand the myth/reality dichotomy?

I’m particularly interested in published studies of children that are relevant to this question. Thanks!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Bobby
i would think from the age of 7-9, depending on the child.

Answer by Amy
Around 7years -11years (Concrete Operational phase in Cognitive Development) At this time children are developing logic. See link for more information.

Answer by Koreena
I was always a realistic child and never believed in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, so I can’t say for myself. However, my sister was about 6 years old when my mother decided to tell her the truth about the nonexistence of the fairytale creatures, but she took that truth and twisted it, telling a little boy in her class that if he believed in Santa then he would go to Hell. I haven’t a clue where she got that idea, but obviously she was still too young to understand, or my mother didn’t clarify enough. I suppose age 8 would be likely, but I knew children of 11 years who still thought a man in a red suit came down their chimney and left gifts under the tree. Perhaps it varies on the household which the child was raised, or maybe on the surroundings. I’m not sure, I’m not really a psychologist, but by the time someone reaches age 10 they should be able to understand the context of myth and reality, how they oppose one another, if not before then.

Hope I could help, but I think all I did was jumble all my words together, so I do apologize if I sounded confusing!

Answer by Zsolt H
In truth what is happening is that even adults cannot make this distinction, all we do is to suppress our questions due to the pressure from society.
But the questions remain and depending on the person surface time and time again, and most of us are still uncertain about what is real what is not.
And it is not a surprise as we cannot sense the whole reality in our present state, we live in a closed black box with 5 small windows called our 5 physical senses.
That is why many of us are searching and searching, turning to teachings, spirituality, etc. until we may find our answers.
I hope it helps, all the best.