The title may be misleading as if it is refers to a composition created for children like the Children's Album by Pyotr Tchaikovsky or the numerous 'Toy' compositions, including the Toy Symphony by Joseph Haydn. Unlike those, this one was not intended to be a piece for children as listeners or performers. The title Children's is a reference to the New Testament:

"At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 18:1-4).

"But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mk 10:14-15).

Actually, the 15th verse of the 10th chapter by Mark ("Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein") is the epigraph of the symphony's score.

Part One

The idea of the composition is to show God's attitude to people as an attitude of a loving parent to their children. In David Sakoyan's words, "parents will love their child even if he/she does something terrible, like burn down the house". The first part of the symphony presents a toddler from the view point of a parent. The toddler is a very energetic, restless and unpredictable. This unpredictability is expressed by constantly changing metre of the first part (3/8 repeatedly changes into 4/8 and then back again).

Part Two

The second part is an opposite of the energetic first part. In its introductory and final fragments, it is more of a "grown-up", rather than a "child". Their slow tempo reflects hesitation and doubts that the "child" does not have. The second parts consists of three components: its introduction and final are musically connected. The central episode, however, again represents the "child" in the form of an energetic fugue.

Part Three

The third part continues the metaphor of a parent and a child by presenting the attitude of a human to God as an attitude of a child to their parent (the one that was shown in the first part). Musically, this part may seem easier to perceive than the other parts, as well as many other Sakoyan's compositions. This is a deliberate solution to show a child's trust for their parent. While the first part presented the parent's unconditional love for the child, the third part demonstrates the child's unconditional trust for the parent. The idea of trust, in turn, is an allusion to Mt 7:9-11:

"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?".

The child from the third part cannot imagine that the parent could ever give them a stone instead of bread or a snake instead of fish. In other words, the child has the perfect ability to believe, which is again an allusion to  Mt 17:20: "... for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you".

Orchestra

This symphony employs a specific set of instruments, which is by far bigger, than that of a chamber orchestra, but still is smaller than that of a modern big symphony orchestra. Sakoyan's ambition was to use in this opus a Beethoven-style orhestra and, despite its modest size, achieve powerful sound.