Chronological age rather than language age determines four- and five-year-old children’s moral reasoning ability

Abstract

The Early Learning Goals state that children must understand what is right, what is wrong and why (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2003). This study explores rule learning and moral development of children in the early years in order to understand whether there is a difference between knowing rules and understanding them and if this difference is a chronological age or language age based variation. Four- and five-year-old children were asked to identify and give moral-based responses to scenes in a series of picture cards displaying commonly enforced rules. The results demonstrated that chronological age was a significant predictor of moral reasoning suggesting important developmental changes in rule learning and morality within the early years. Although the children’s responses to the moral reasoning task were language based, a child’s language age did not predict their ability to morally reason.