This is the age of sex-segregation where boys like to play with boys and girls with girls. But mixed activities will bring healthy interaction that will help prepare children for adolescence, and ultimately, marriage. Workers should ensure that youth groups are places with a strong sense of group identity. Encouraging involvement will cause children to begin to own the group. Children at this age are extremely sensitive about being excluded from a group or an activity, and they need special encouragement.
Every person goes through a process of development towards maturity.
In this process a child gradually becomes able to think and understand in more complex ways. Our ministry to children needs to be geared to the way that children think and understand, not the way adolescents or adults think. The following list indicates some of the differences in thinking ability, identified by Jean Piaget.