Everyone here has been a child. I'm 110% confident about that.
Yet, a lot of people can have an incredibly difficult time writing/roleplaying meaningful child characters. This is for a lot of different reasons such as our own self reflection of a child is way different than if we looked at ourselves from an outside perspective. We have preconceived notions of how children behave and act. We have preconceived notions of how children should behave and act. I'm hoping to disseminate and write down three rules I've set for myself whenever I've played a child character. I've pulled these concrete rules/ideas I have in my head from watching excellent sources of material such as Stranger Things, Avatar the Last Airbender, and Bridge to Terabithia. I hope these at least give you a foundation of what constitutes as dynamic child characters.
1. Youth calculate risk in terms of first hand consequence
2. Youth perceive time differently
3. Youth /are/ rational
Two other things that could probably help is the Theories of Child Development and Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. Both are lengthy but I suggest the second the most if you're seriously interested in creating dynamic child characters.
Yet, a lot of people can have an incredibly difficult time writing/roleplaying meaningful child characters. This is for a lot of different reasons such as our own self reflection of a child is way different than if we looked at ourselves from an outside perspective. We have preconceived notions of how children behave and act. We have preconceived notions of how children should behave and act. I'm hoping to disseminate and write down three rules I've set for myself whenever I've played a child character. I've pulled these concrete rules/ideas I have in my head from watching excellent sources of material such as Stranger Things, Avatar the Last Airbender, and Bridge to Terabithia. I hope these at least give you a foundation of what constitutes as dynamic child characters.
1. Youth calculate risk in terms of first hand consequence
If you tell me that you've never done something despite being told the danger about it you're full of crock shit. We and every child for the next history of humanity will do stupid, reckless stuff to either stick it to the old people or because of plain curiosity. How else do we acclimate ourselves to danger if we don't experience it first hand? And the more danger we experience the more careful we become as we grow older. I've really started to come to terms with the fragility of my pink flesh prison after I broke a few bones (or have had close calls). However, I can't begrudge someone younger than me when I see them partaking in "dangerous" behavior because they really haven't experienced first hand the consequences of.
I see a lot of people watching movies/television really hate child character because of how impulsive they act. BUT THAT'S HOW CHILDREN ACT, but we should replace the word impulsive with something else. In reality, children measure the risk differently and if you as an adult get frustrated with any child character then the author has done a good job. When Katara stole the water scroll in Avatar the Last Airbender, she really had no experience with what could possibly go wrong. She saw no consequences to her actions because she had no experience with stealing.
So there's a fine line between having a rash child character and a conscientious child character. To effectively act as a child: you should try to place yourself in the mindset of despite being told about danger; you don't really know that it's actually dangerous. Understand that your child character is going to measure the risk of danger based on their perception of the consequences. They may see little to no consequences.
2. Youth perceive time differently
As you grow older your perception of time falls by half at certain intervals. The basic concept is think about when you're one year old a year is 100% of your life. By the time you're eight, a year is only 12.5 percent of your life. For you in your existence history started at birth so you comparatively measure your experience based on the time you've experienced.
So remember that time goes slower for you as a youngin and you'll get bored sitting around doing nothing. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. Youth want to experience and understand the world around them. Babies do this by putting things in their mouths. Toddlers do this by hobbling to and fro are far as they can. Children and teens do this by doing things they shouldn't and trying to hid said things. Have backup things your child character(s) does in their free time like write a secret journal or walk through the woods without supervision. Think of the "bad" things you did as youth when none of your elders were watching.
3. Youth /are/ rational
I personally think this is the most important one. "Why did you do that?" you are berated by your parent with an accusative question and you shrug your shoulders. "I dunno." But you did know; it's just at the age you didn't cohesive reasoning to define your reasoning.
Children have ideas about the world, not well thought out thoughts. When May Belle in Bridge to Terabithia followed her brother into the forest she said, "I want you to come home," versus what she probably meant was, "I know you're sad about [redacted spoiler] and I want you to come be with your family." We've probably had our own behaviors and actions questioned as a child and we KNOW why we did them. We just couldn't EXPLAIN why. Simple reasoning would say that our vocabulary is limited but it's probably more complex than that.
This kind of goes hand in hand with number one. Remember that as a child character your actions may seem reckless or thoughtless, but your character really should really know what they want to do. Children calculate their actions based on information available or that they think is available.
Two other things that could probably help is the Theories of Child Development and Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. Both are lengthy but I suggest the second the most if you're seriously interested in creating dynamic child characters.
