Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 9، December 2026 ، issue Number 127

Children's Thought and Language from Rumi's Perspective

Ali Mohammad Moazzeni (Author in Charge)

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Classical Persian literature did not recognize children"s literature as an autonomous modern genre; nevertheless, Rumi repeatedly addresses the proportionality of speech to understanding, the child"s conceptual world, hearing and speech, and the need to speak in a child"s language. This study reconstructs these observations as an account of the relation between language and thought in childhood and examines their implications for Persian children"s literature.

METHODOLOGY: The method is descriptive-analytical and comparative. Selected passages from the Masnavi and Fihi Ma Fih are classified under five themes: language–cognition proportionality, vocabulary development, hearing and speech, similar-language communication, and experiential expansion of meaning. They are then cautiously compared with selected propositions in developmental psychology of language, especially Vygotsky, without claiming historical or theoretical identity.

FINDINGS: Rumi distinguishes the child"s conceptual world from adult reasoning, recommends adapting discourse to the child"s level of understanding, emphasizes prior linguistic input and interaction, and portrays meaning as developing through experience. "Speaking the language of children" therefore denotes semantic and communicative proportionality, not mere simplification.

CONCLUSION: Rumi"s observations may be read as a premodern literary-mystical model of audience-sensitive communication and gradual conceptual development. They are not equivalent to modern psychology, but can be compared with it. For children"s literature, the practical consequence is to match vocabulary, imagery, narrative complexity, and conceptual density with age while still expanding the child"s language and thought.

Keyword
child and adolescent , language and thought , Rumi , Masnavi-ye Ma'navi , cognitive development , didactic literature.