How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will add support that guarantees the conclusion.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

most children should not have pets until they are at least six years old.

Child psychologist: [BACKGROUND]. [SUPPORT]. Hence, [CONCLUSION].

This is a pretty classic example of how the author changes the subject. The conclusion says “children should not have pets”, but there’s no other mention of having pets anywhere in the passage. So the right answer will have to connect that wording to the wording of the support.

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …rely on others to take care of a pet.

Cool, but that still leaves us to assume that means these kids “should not have pets”. We’re not supposed to add in our own assumptions. We need an answer that actually uses the wording from the conclusion, or other wording that means exactly the same thing.

(B) …should be allowed to have pets.

Close, but this only supports when to let kids have pets. So it doesn’t actually add support for a conclusion that “children should not have pets”.

(C) Most children…do not have pets.

The “should” in the conclusion wants to make it clear that it doesn’t matter whether kids actually have pets or not. We need support for a judgment about whether it’s okay for them to have pets.

(D) Most children are egocentric…

This doesn’t really add anything new. This is basically the same info we got in the passage, except without anything about the kids’ ages. We need to add support, so this kind of answer is pretty useless to us.

(E) The only children who should have pets…

So if a kid doesn’t meet the qualification stated here, that kid “should not have pets”. And what do you know? The qualification maps exactly to the support about “independent creatures with their own feelings and needs”. Boom.

(E) is the correct answer.

Common pattern/s in this question: The LSAT thinks this is ⭐⭐⭐ difficulty, but to those of us who recognized that the conclusion changes the subject, it almost couldn’t be easier.