Children's Understanding of Illness

Children's understanding of illness grows with age and education. It is important to alter the tone and context of conversations about illness with children. Using words they understand and potentially incorporating metaphors or analogies may increase the child's comprehension of the situation. This page provides a breakdown of a child's understanding by age. This information predominately comes from the "Through the Eyes of the Child" (TEC) Model discussed thoroughly in "Illness through the eyes of the child: the development of children’s understanding of the causes of illness" linked on the references page.

Age 0-2

Stage 1. At this age, children do not have any understanding of illness or the various ways that an individual can contract illness. Factors including the what, why, or how are not considered at this age. Invisibility of illness is a crucial aspect at this age.

Age 2-7

Stage 2. Characterized by distance, the second stage of the TEC highlights the external activities a child associates with an individual contacting an illness. For example leaving a window open at night and getting cold cause an illness would be what the child saw as the sole and central cause of an illness, failing to differentiate between themselves and external factors.

Stage 3. Focusing on proximity, children believe that illness originated from a contaminant that the person came into close proximity with. Although they are strictly focused on a temporary and spatial exposure, their descriptions of illness become less vague.

Age 7-11

Stage 4. At this stage children start to associate bodily contact and illness. Although children are not yet capable of separation of mind and body, they are able to include visible bodily functions in their descriptions of illness contraction. They understand the use of medication, but in the context that it can be applied to the bodies surface.

Stage 5. Children in this stage begin to understand that illness can occur internally, and is not only the external symptoms they witness. They start to understand that there are preventative measures they can take to avoid illness. At this stage the child understands that illnesses have various external and internal causes.

Age 11

Stage 6. In this stage children are able to describe illness as it related generally to internal organs and body functions. They are able to hypothesize the relationship between the illness and the surroundings. At this age they will understand that their actions, such as medication or behavior, play a role in. the end result.