A child can BELIEVE that Jesus's presence in the bread is "real," but the child will not UNDERSTAND without some understanding of Transubstantiation, which is to say, Thomas's metaphysics.  Children accept the "that" without knowing the "how."  In that sense, Cassie is right.  Children know no more about the Real Presence than ghosts and magic.  As Ross Warnell pointed out above, the problem is that Catholics are not further educated as young adults and adults as to the meaning of the Transubstantiation and beyond that, the Eucharist "being the sign and the reality of God broken and poured out for the love of a broken and hurting world."   Well said, Mr. Warnell.