Researchers have asked young children between the ages of three to five years old, on what they dream about. Those who remember seeing dreams described their experiences as seeing pictures or photographs. The kids don’t recall seeing movement in their dreams. For the kids, their brains are still undeveloped and their dreams are elementary in nature. Children don’t see themselves interacting with others in dreams. Like in real life, kids usually don’t participate in social interactions and are usually passive. Children behave more like sponges absorbing stimulants rather than giving responses to them.
Toddlers and young children dream more often of input stimuli than reality. For example, they watch TV and look at picture books. These become sources of inspiration for their dreams. Researchers have discovered that kids dream more about their cartoon shows, TV shows, fairy tale characters and toy characters. It can be due to the big influence these have on the child. Fiction is exaggerated more than treality and it forms a big and enduring influence on the young mind.
When children dream of these characters, the actions are rather simple. It reflects the nature of their young minds. The dreams do not tell original stories but rather repeat common stories on what was told about the characters.
When the child grows older, like upon reaching the ages of five to eight, the kid begins to invent stories and so do their dreams. However, their dreams are not structured and don’t follow a logical sequence like a beginning, middle and ending.
From the age of seven upwards, the child’s neural network has reached a higher level of development. The kid’s dream begins to own structure in having a beginning, middle and end. The child dreams of being a participant in their dream. The kid sees themselves in their dream.
