CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Understanding child
development
Janine Spencer, Brunel University, gives an overview of how children change
from birth to eight years of age – particularly in terms of perception, conception,
memory and language – and highlights the importance of this knowledge in
responsible marketing
T
HIS ARTICLE DISCUSSES some of
the changes that happen during child-
hood: changes in the way children think,
changes in the way children interact, changes
in the way children behave. Of course, I do not
have space to discuss all the changes that occur
through childhood, so I have picked out a few
very important cognitive and social changes
that children go through just to give you an
idea of how rapidly children develop. I want to
make clear that it is not possible just to look at
a new product or packaging and give an analy-
sis of how it will appeal to children of different
ages. I know there are all kinds of questions
about what appeals to children. For example,
which characters do children find most amus-
ing and memorable, what is most likely to draw
a child’s attention on a toyshop shelf, which
words or language in an advertising campaign
will maximally appeal to a wide age range, and
so on?
In order to address questions like these it is
important to understand more about children.
Therefore, in this article I will give an overview
of how children change from birth through to
eight years of age. I also hope to persuade you
why the scientific understanding of children’s
development is fundamental to children’s mar-
keting. It is crucial for designing products and
services for children; it is crucial for marketing
to children; and it is crucial for doing market
research with children. Much of the research in
developmental psychology has moved forward
16 YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004
without reference to what people in the real
world, such as teachers, parents and marketing
people, need to know about children.Therefore,
developmental psychology needs to be applied
to the real world to solve real world problems
and questions.
Children change gradually over time.
Different children develop different abilities at
different ages. Even when a child develops a
particular ability at quite an early age, it does
not mean that they can or will use that ability in
every context. For example, by the age of two
children are learning how to communicate
using basic language. Although they have this
ability, if they become absorbed in a task or
have a tantrum, these learnt behaviours can dis-
appear. This is of course true even for adults.
We all have the ability to act rationally at all
times, but no one would claim we always do so.
A lot of child development is very counter
intuitive. For example, at what age can children
distinguish between cats and dogs? Maybe
when they learn to say cat and dog? In actual
fact, by three months infants can easily differ-
entiate pictures of various breeds of cats and
dogs. It is also very easy to take thinking for
granted, because children’s abilities develop so
rapidly and with seemingly so little effort. But
most of the abilities we take for granted are
incredibly sophisticated. For the purpose of this
article I will discuss the following main areas of
child development: perception and attention,
conception, memory, and language.
© World Advertising Research Center 2004

Perception and attention
Being able to perceive the world seems easy.
When we want to pick something up, we simply
reach out and grab it. How often do we think
about turning in the right direction when some-
one calls our name? We take these things for
granted. But the biological processes that let us
perceive help us develop conscious thought.
How well do we see? Seeing isn’t simply the
process of focusing light on the eyes. As much as
one third of the brain is involved in processing
visual information. These structures are in place
at birth but they take a long time to develop. So,
how well a child can see depends on how old
they are and what you want them to see. A
child’s environment – its home, school, every-
where – is full of continuous visual stimulation.
There is so much visual information in the envi-
ronment that we are all, by necessity, incredibly
selective in what we actually look at and attend
to.
We know that babies can see from birth. But
some processes may take more than ten years to
mature. The things that are most obvious about
seeing develop rapidly. But we need to be able to
interpret and understand the visual world. For
example seeing in three dimensions is an incred-
ibly complicated process, yet we learn to do this
automatically within a few months of birth.
Colour is very important. Children like bright
colours. Little girls love pink. But, how closely
related is this to the science of colour percep-
tion? We know that colour vision is almost
mature at about four months of age. There has
been some research on infant’s initial colour
preferences before they are swayed by culture. If
babies are shown lights that vary only in colour
– and this can only be done in a laboratory –
there is some evidence that they prefer pure
colours like red and green to mixed ones like
orange or pink. But this is very misleading. We
do not live in a laboratory. In the real world, all
the objects we see vary not only in colour, but
also in lighting, shading, reflectance, texture. So,
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
A child’s environment –
its home, school,
everywhere – is full of
continuous visual
stimulation. We are all,
by necessity, incredibly
selective of what we look
at and attend to
although infants may prefer pure colours in the
laboratory, when it comes to product design,
colour, contrast sensitivity and the luminance
between colours need to be taken into account.
If children are going to be able to engage fully
with their environment, they have to encode
what they see and hear, form a mental represen-
tation of that information, and then retrieve that
information at a later date.This is a far more dif-
ficult cognitive process than it sounds and
begins with attention.
Think of an Easter Egg Hunt. Easter eggs,
wrapped in bright shiny foil are placed, often in
full view, around the house or garden. But even
if an egg is in full view of a child it can take an
astonishingly long time for them to notice it.
Children love chocolate and children love bright
shiny objects – so why is it so difficult? And if
children can find it so difficult to find something
they are desperate to get hold of, what are they
going to notice about an advert on a billboard or
even a TV ad if they’re not attending to it?
Being able to focus attention is crucial to
thinking. It is easy to observe that young chil-
dren lack the ability to engage in sustained
attention. They are easily distracted and find it
difficult to focus on any one task for a prolonged
period of time. When young children do attend
to objects or events, they do not always attend to
those details which are most relevant. For exam-
ple, two to three-year-olds may be more likely to
attend to the waiter in a restaurant than the
YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004 17
 CHILD DEVELOPMENT
It is not until the age of
seven to eight years that
children have the ability
to screen out distracting
information and focus
on what is relevant.
Therefore, your brand
has to stand out
food. Consequently, it is the waiter they remem-
ber about their meal out. As children develop,
their attention levels increase so that by the time
children are four years old they can focus their
attention for sustained periods of time.
However, four-year-olds still find it difficult to
ignore irrelevant information. Attention
depends on being able to ignore distracting
stimuli and it is only by the time children are
approaching their sixth birthday that they begin
to learn how to do this. So what does this mean
for child marketing? Well, selective attention is
important for children recognising and attend-
ing to your brand. However, preschool children
find it hard to choose where to attend and
become easily distracted. This is especially true
for two to five-year-olds. It is not until the age
of seven to eight years that children have the
ability to screen out distracting information and
focus on what is relevant.Therefore, your brand
has to stand out.
Conceptual development
Concepts represent people’s knowledge of the
world. Knowledge is divided into concepts and
concepts stand for categories in the world. In
other words, concepts classify things into cate-
gories. They reflect the way in which we divide
up the world into classes such as friends versus
family. So for a child to have a concept of
Disneyland as a good place for a holiday means
18 YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004
that they have a mental representation of the cat-
egories theme parks and holidays.
Many categories form a hierarchy. The struc-
ture of these hierarchies goes from a single
instance to a generic level concept. So, we may
have a number of general concepts such as soft
drinks and alcoholic drinks. Within a category,
we have familiar examples, such as Coca-Cola
and Pepsi.
Children first learn that there are dogs, and
that there are cats – and this can happen as early
as three months of age. Later, they learn that
there are different breeds of dog and that differ-
ent breeds have very different properties –
labradors are friendly, chihuahuas are snappy,
greyhounds are speedy.With development comes
the ability to learn what makes a dog a dog.
A further function of concepts is that it
allows us to go beyond what something looks
like (Bruner et al 1956). When we see some-
thing new, such as a dog, the only knowledge we
have about it is what it looks like. However, it is
essential that we can go beyond the basic
appearance of the dog and draw upon related
knowledge. For example, even if a dog has a
wagging tail, and looks furry, not all dogs are
friendly, and some may even be dangerous.
Therefore, having a concept of a dog allows us
to link the perceptual information (what some-
thing looks like) with our knowledge of what
other dogs can be like.
So what does this mean? Young children may
see Coke and Pepsi as separate concepts and
refuse to drink Pepsi, believing it to be a very
different category of drink to Coke, even though
they could not really tell the difference in the
Pepsi Challenge. As they get older, they recog-
nise that Coke and Pepsi are very similar
members of the same category but by this stage
they may have a very strong brand preference
imprinted. What we need to know is why chil-
dren conceptualise some brands more easily
than others and at what point a brand becomes
a concept.This is best addressed within research
in developmental psychology.

Memory
Even if children like a particular advert, game or
programme, it is essential that they remember it.
It is well-known that preschoolers have a poor
memory. Nevertheless, their recognition mem-
ory (knowing whether a stimulus or event is the
same or similar to a previously seen one) is con-
siderably better than their recall memory. If four
to five-year-olds are presented with 10 different
toys in a row, even when those toys are mixed up
with novel ones, the children can still recognise
the original toys; this is recognition memory.
However, if you ask the same children to
name the toys when they are hidden from view,
these same children can rarely recall more than
four items; this is recall memory. This type of
memory requires that the child can generate a
mental image of an object or event and then
recall that image in the absence of the original
stimulus. Recall memory is notoriously more
difficult than recognition memory even in
adults. Nevertheless, recall memory is signifi-
cantly poorer in preschool children, mainly
because they do not have sufficient memory
capacity for using sophisticated memory strate-
gies, such as rehearsal or grouping things
together. When preschoolers do use memory
strategies, they tend to be for things when recall
results in a desired goal such as eating sweets.
Despite this deficit in recall memory in
young children, if a stimulus or event is mean-
ingful to children, they can show surprising
recall ability. For example, one study tested two
and a half and four and a half-year-old chil-
dren’s memories of Disneyworld six months
and 18 months afterwards. Both age groups
were able to recall a large amount of informa-
tion regarding their trip as verified by their
parents. So it would appear that preschool chil-
dren’s memory is good, but only for meaningful
information. By to eight to nine years of age
children are able to jog their memory by think-
ing of clues to stimulate recall such as the first
letter of a product name they like.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
As children develop, so does their ability to
think quickly. The ability to think quickly means
that you can think about more things. Four to
five-year-olds are easily confused when faced
with something complex, whereas seven to eight
-year-olds’ larger processing capacity signifies
that they are beginning to be able to multitask.
This increased processing capacity means that a
child can talk to a friend on the telephone, watch
television and eat a snack all at the same time.
Therefore, it is important for advertisers and
child marketing people to know what informa-
tion is meaningful to children at different stages
in their development.
Language
Communicating using language is simple. I do
not even have to pronounce a word correctly in
order to be understood. For example, if I say the
word handbag quickly, the sound that is often
produced is more like ham bag. So, it sounds like
a bag made of ham, not a bag you carry in your
hand. Nevertheless, it is very rare for people to
misunderstand me when I say this. Now, the
main purpose of language is to communicate.
So it really does not matter whether I say ham-
bag or handbag as long as the person I am
talking to understands what I am saying.
Between birth and six years the advances chil-
dren make in language development are
momentous. On average, children say their first
words by their first birthday. By six years of age
they have an average vocabulary of about
10,000 words. By the age of four years, children
understand many of the social aspects of lan-
guage. This involves understanding that other
people have different thoughts and feelings to
their own. At about the age of two years, chil-
dren are beginning to become aware that other
people have different ideas to them. However,
they struggle to adapt their own ideas to fit in
with those of other people.
It is only by the age of three to four that chil-
dren come to realise that beliefs and desires can
YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004 19
 CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Children understand far
more than they can say –
do not be afraid of using
complicated phrases in ads
form the basis for human action.With the devel-
opment of what we call Theory of Mind
(understanding that other people may have dif-
ferent intentions) children learn to adapt their
inflection depending to whom they are talking
and what they are talking about.
However, preschool age children are not very
competent in changing what words they use,
bridging conversations and changing topics, or
in using non-verbal cues relative to certain situ-
ations. All of these skills improve dramatically by
seven to eight years of age.
Joke telling is a clear demonstration that a
child’s social language is developing. There are a
number of skills involved in successfully
recounting jokes. For instance, it is important to
listen to your audience, gauge their mood and
perhaps adjust what you say to make it maxi-
mally funny to that audience. Joke telling also
involves being able to tell a joke at the right
speed. All of these abilities are usually beyond
the cognitive capacities of young children.When
preschool children do engage in joke telling it
usually involves simply saying a funny word like
‘poo’. By seven to eight years of age children are
learning how to adapt their language depending
on to whom they are talking. Different speech
styles and different words are often used with
their friends from with their teachers or parents.
This ability to adapt language to the context is a
sign of advanced understanding of other peo-
ple’s intentions.
So, why is it important to know about chil-
dren’s language abilities? We know that language
comprehension develops far earlier than language
productions. Therefore, if we only rely on what
children say, then we will underestimate their lan-
guage knowledge and how much they know.
20 YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004
Discussion
I know that was a lot to take in – eight years in a
few thousand words – and I have really only
scratched the surface in discussing some of the
differences in development between these age
groups and the things you have to think about
when you’re addressing them. I want to return to
what you really want to know about. How does
knowing about children help us work out how
they will respond and react to different product
packaging, advertising or marketing?
I should start with a warning. You can tick all
the boxes, make sure that something appeals on
every level: children of all ages are attracted to it,
they like it, and they remember it. Nevertheless,
the product can fail because of context.
How well a product stands out on a super-
market shelf, for example, depends to an
enormous extent on what is next to it on the
shelf. You might have the best possible packag-
ing in the entire world, but it will be completely
ignored if something is more attention-grabbing
on the next shelf. This is why controlling the
product environment is so important.
It is amazing how you can go into a shop with
a child, and they can somehow immediately spot
Angelina Ballerina on a wide shelf packed with
different brands. How do they do this? The
processes going on in their brains are actually
very complicated, but there are simple rules to
make products stand out. The first is that chil-
dren are quicker to recognise objects, shapes or
brands with which they are familiar. The second
is to do with the way an object is presented.
Bright colours make a product or object stand
out, but on a shelf full of bright colours, it is very
difficult to make something stand out purely on
the basis of colour. People have also got to
recognise quickly that it is an object or product
in which they are interested.
Our brains are better at picking out objects if
they stand out from their background – that is,
they are much lighter or darker than their back-
ground. Often the product text or the logo or

character will be in a vivid colour, but on top of
a similarly vivid background.
Bright yellow text on a bright red background
is much harder to read than bright yellow on
dark red, or dark yellow on bright red. The
greater the contrast between the two, the easier
something is to make out.
Graphic designers and artists are well aware
of most of these guidelines in perception, but
sometimes in trying to meet a particular brief,
some basic important factors can be overlooked.
If you de-saturate a product or object – remove
the colour and leave it in shades of grey – you
can get a good idea of how noticeable your
product is. If when you de-saturate it, everything
is a similar murky grey, the product is unlikely to
be noticed easily, no matter how vivid the
colours are. But if the brand or logo in greyscale
still stands out because it is much brighter or
darker than the background, then the product is
much more likely to be noticed.
In a visually crowded display such as a
toyshop shelf it is important for a product to
quickly attract attention. This requires three
things: it must be different from the other prod-
ucts; it must stand out in some specific way; and
the name and identity of the product must be
very rapidly recognised.
Developmental psychology can help in break-
ing down what children easily perceive and
attend to, how they form categories of brands
and what types of products and advertising they
will best remember.
Concluding thoughts
I believe the four topics of child development I
have discussed can easily be applied to child
marketing in the following ways:
Visual attention – advertising
I want to get across the message that you can not
bombard children with visual images and hope
that some of it gets through.They have to attend
to images, so you have to know what children
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
are likely to attend to. Blitzing with the same
images will lead to a deliberate and automatic
ignoring of that image. If you want to get chil-
dren to remember your brand you have to target
them in lots of different ways.
Conceptual development – product
awareness
Children must understand the concepts you are
trying to get across before forming their own
opinions. This depends on their age and ability,
and the nature of the concept. Concepts should
be more pictorial for younger children, and get
more abstract for older ones.
Language – spreading the word
Children understand far more than they can say.
Do not be afraid of using more complicated
phrases in ads. When conducting market
research, you may think that because their utter-
ances are quite simple they do not understand the
concepts you are trying to get across. But this is
not necessarily the case.
Memory – customer loyalty
Remember there is a difference between recogni-
tion and recall. Of course, children can recognise
your advertising message if they are prompted.
But they must be able to recall it spontaneously
from their own memory at the appropriate time.
References
Bruner, J.S., Goodnow, J.J. & Austin, G.A. (1956)
A study of thinking. New York: Wiley.
Dr Janine Spencer is a lecturer
in developmental psychology at
Brunel University where she is
also Director of the Centre for
Research in Infant Behaviour
(CRIB). Dr Spencer holds a BSc
in social psychology and a PhD
in developmental psychology
from the Medical Research
Council’s Cognitive
Development Unit at UCL.
YOUNG CONSUMERS Quarter 4 2004 21