Different from hearing world..

[Interpretrator]

Could be that kids are starting to understand themselves and who and what they are. I see it in my son now as he is 8 and in third grade. Last year, he didn't have that same sense of self as he does now. It is like night and day in that respect.

True. Eight years old is considered the threshold of perception, and I KNOW I have that term wrong, but basically it means it's the age when kids start understanding the world and society in a more externally directed way, as opposed to internally. Meaning, like you say, that they have a sense of "self as opposed to the world" instead of "the world is about myself." It's one of those major milestones in child development.