Early conversations about causality: Content, pragmatics and developmental change

Developments in children's participation in causal discourse with their mothers and older siblings were studied in the naturally occurring conversations of 50 second‐born children observed at home at 33 and 40 months. There were marked increases in discourse about causality, and changes in content and in the social context in which children discussed cause, with an increase in causal talk about inner states and social practices. At 33 months children talked about cause chiefly in attempts to get their own needs met, at 40 months chiefly in reflective discussion. Patterns over time in the discourse measures, and correlations between these measures at 33 months and the children's success on an assessment of understanding of the causes of emotions at 40 months highlighted the continuity in child differences, and the importance of particular pragmatic contexts, including disputes, within which discourse about causality takes place.