"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:11

Those experiences don't go away but blend together to make who we are as adults?

I remember when we'd go to the beach and, as a child, I'd run to get in the water, couldn't understand the adults wanting to stretch out on the beach instead of spend all their time in the water? I won't even put on a bathing suit anymore, never mind running to get in the water but that experience is still with me; I don't like/dislike the water any more/less but a whole lot of other experiences have entered so that relatively straight-forward experience I had at 6 is a lot more complex at 60. Working with one's inner child, one can re-explore that approach to "water", it hasn't gone anywhere it's just that the multitude of additional stuff has hidden it so it's harder to pay attention to.