How do children of different ages and maturity levels perceive death?
Children of various ages and maturity levels perceive death very differently. Between the ages of three and five, children believe that death is when someone goes away on a journey, or is taking a long nap. To these pre-school children, death is not final. Once children reach the age of five-years-old until they are about ten, they understand death is final, but they do not realize that it can happen to them or the people around them. By the time children reach the age of ten, they understand the finality of death and that it inevitably will happen to everyone they know including themselves.
