Even assuming the possibility of greater knowledge among responsive young children of a mass media age, it is questionable whether an increase in verbal knowledge and expression has much effect on the capacity for understanding in depth or on the style of behavior of children with no more than five years of living and growing behind them…. The drawings of contemporary fives are no more complex, the capacity for judgment no sharper, the feelings of helplessness when they get sick or into trouble no less painful than they have ever been, as far as we know.
Dorothy H. Cohen
Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century), U.S. educator, child development specialist. The Learning Child, “Developmental Aspects of Five-year-olds,” (1972).