Children are believed to construct their causal theories through talk and interaction, but with the exception of a few studies, little or nothing is known about how young children justify and build theories of the world together with same-age peers through naturally occurring interaction, Children's sensitivity to when a pair or group of…

Examined effects of direct intervention on language learning. Using a toy manipulation task, 18 children aged 3;6 to 4;6 were systematically taught linguistic structures beyond their developmental grasp. Solid improvement was found in the experimental conditions; no significant improvement was noted in control conditions, showing that the language…

Four children were videotaped playing with their mothers, first in a situation with gestures, and then in a situation without gestures. Results showed that maternal gestures have more of a role in maintaining attention and flow of interaction for young children than they do in providing specific cues to the grammar the child is acquiring. (SL)