What is mental age and chronological age?

Answer 1

Chronological age (as it pertains to humans) is the actual age of a person from the moment of birth to any point in time as long as that person is alive. It is the actual time span. Thus a person could be 5 years old, 11 years 10 months 2 days old...etc.

The mental development of a person is reflected in the mental age of a person. The mental age can be quite different from the chronological age. There are accepted mental development standards for an average person based on his/her chronological age. But these standards vary based on many factors, some of which are

1) Environment in which the person grows.

2) Things and situations that the person is exposed to

3) Home and societal environment

4) Stability of a society

5) Absence of war and destruction

6) Disease including mental

7) Lack of nutrition

8) Stability of the family

9) Inborn gift or lack of it

and many more

Thus we may encounter an eight year old doing and understanding college level math and science (a gift) or a 50 year old who can hardly count one through 10. Thus even though there is a linear relationship between chronological age and mental age for the average population, it can vary from person to person due to one or more of the above reasons and others.