understanding dreams

[DaSwede]

In your experience, at what age does a child

1) understand what a dream is (understand it's not 'real')
2) understand what a symbol is ("I dreamed this, but it meant that.")

Do you know of any good books or web sites that deal with the subject? I do google myself, so I'm not asking that you do it for me - I just want the ones that are good, in your personal opinion.

Thanks in advance, I'll thank you more personally tomorrow or the day after.

[DaSwede]

PS There's an old book by Sandra Collier called Wake Up to Your Dreams, but that's the only one I've found so far.

[tiggeralix]

hi
my daughter is 2 years old and has night terrors so i guess they understand fro about 18 months that its a dream its just coming to terms that its not real, im not sure a book can help - the only thing i have found that helps is comforting my daughter when she wakes up but keeping her in her room

[DaSwede]

Hi tiggeralix, thanks for your reply. I'm writing about dreams and need to find good references. Seems there's very little written when it comes to children.