A study was conducted by the American Friends of Tel Aviv University in November 2012 that was titled “Fantasy-reality confusion a primary cause of childhood nighttime fears.” This case study of 80 children age’s four to six produced a theory that a child's ability to separate fact from fiction can impact their dreams at night. It is also suggested that preschoolers that continually have bad dreams were far less able to distinguish between reality and fantasy compared to their peers.
There was another article that gave this study a twist: “Are children more open to the paranormal or is there a conventional psychological explanation?” http://bit.ly/Zn1J1q. This February 18th article from Discovery.com suggests that this is a possible reason for why small children are saying that they see ghosts.
Are we to assume then that all children who claim to see or hear a ghost, based by this study, are just confused? That their own fears have gotten the better of them? It is certainly not unlikely that children make up stories to get attention or believe things that are not real because a parent may have suggested it…dare we say, Santa?
There are many other scientific studies that have been done that prove that children can posses a sixth sense. A number of these cases of apparent psychic ability involving children were done by Athena A Drewes, Psy.D. and Sally Feather Ph.D. of the Rhine Research Center in NC. Drewes and Feather believe that children are more open-minded about such experiences and do not yet accept what our society deems them to be. They also say it is possible that the child’s innocence may have helped their psychic ability because they have no fear or reservation.
As a parent, we know our children better than anyone else. Are we listening to them? The dismissal of an event as only a dream could cause the child to hide or disregard their gift. Try to bring out their talents but never influence or try to force a child to display any type of psychic abilities. Comfort them if they are fearful but do not dismiss their fear as nothing. Let them learn and grow as children will do and whatever gift they posses, it will surely grow with them.
The scientific community will continue to do research on this subject. You decide for yourself if you believe!
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