Causal reasoning in young children

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 263
Author(s):  
Paul L. Harris ◽  
Robert D. Kavanaugh
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Causal Reasoning

scholarly journals The Development of Causal Reasoning

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Muentener ◽  
Elizabeth Bonawitz
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The World

Research on the development of causal reasoning has broadly focused on accomplishing two goals: understanding the origins of causal reasoning, and examining how causal reasoning changes with development. This chapter reviews evidence and theory that aim to fulfill both of these objectives. In the first section, it focuses on the research that explores the possible precedents for recognizing causal events in the world, reviewing evidence for three distinct mechanisms in early causal reasoning: physical launching events, agents and their actions, and covariation information. The second portion of the chapter examines the question of how older children learn about specific causal relationships. It focuses on the role of patterns of statistical evidence in guiding learning about causal structure, suggesting that even very young children leverage strong inductive biases with patterns of data to inform their inferences about causal events, and discussing ways in which children’s spontaneous play supports causal learning.

Causal reasoning about pairs of relations and analogical reasoning in young children

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usha Goswami ◽  
Hilary Leevers ◽  
Sarah Pressley ◽  
Sally Wheelwright
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Analogical Reasoning

scholarly journals Developmental shifts toward structural explanations and interventions for social status disparities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Peretz-Lange ◽  
Jennifer Perry ◽  
Paul Muentener
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Structural Reasoning

As part of their early “essentialist” intuitions, young children view intergroup differences as reflecting groups’ intrinsic natures. In the present study, we explore the nature and development of “structural” reasoning, or view of intergroup differences as reflecting groups’ extrinsic circumstances. We introduced participants (n = 315; ages 5–6, 9–10, and adults) to novel intergroup status disparities that could be attributed to either personal or structural causes. Disparities were verbally framed in either intrinsic, neutral or extrinsic terms. We assessed attributions by asking participants to explain the disparities and to offer interventions for them. We also assessed participants’ status-based social preferences. We found that attributions shifted from personal to structural over development. Explanations and interventions for the disparities were correlated and related to the same predictors (framing and age) and outcomes (social preferences), although interventions were consistently more structural than explanations. Implications for essentialism, causal reasoning, and social development are discussed.

Mechanism-Based Causal Reasoning in Young Children

2011 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 2053-2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Buchanan ◽  
David M. Sobel
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Causal Reasoning

scholarly journals Learning About Germs in a Global Pandemic: Children’s Knowledge and Avoidance of Contagious Illness Before and After COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Leotti ◽  
Nicole Pochinki ◽  
Dakota Reis ◽  
Elizabeth Bonawitz ◽  
Vanessa LoBue
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Declarative Knowledge ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Us Children

The present research investigates how a global pandemic may be affecting children’s understanding of contagion. In Study 1, 130 parents (85.4% White, 6.9% Hispanic, 3.8% Asian, 3.8% Black) of children ages 3-9 described discussions surrounding contagion pre- and post-pandemic. Content of these discussions focused on risks and preventative behaviors rather than causal mechanisms of contagion. In Study 2, US children tested during the pandemic (ages 4-7, N=60, 51.7% males) were compared to a sample tested before the pandemic (ages 4-5, N=30, 50% males) on tasks of contagion-related declarative knowledge and causal reasoning. Greater declarative knowledge and causal reasoning in the pandemic sample suggests the effectiveness of informal learning experiences in young children.

The Modification of Hypernasality in Young Children

1984 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moya L. Andrews ◽  
Sarah J. Tardy ◽  
Lisa G. Pasternak
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Voice Therapy

This paper presents an approach to voice therapy programming for young children who are hypernasal. Some general principles underlying the approach are presented and discussed.

Lexical Comprehension in Young Children With Developmental Delays

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa A. Kouri
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Group Status ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Lexical Concepts

Lexical comprehension skills were examined in 20 young children (aged 28–45 months) with developmental delays (DD) and 20 children (aged 19–34 months) with normal development (ND). Each was assigned to either a story-like script condition or a simple ostensive labeling condition in which the names of three novel object and action items were presented over two experimental sessions. During the experimental sessions, receptive knowledge of the lexical items was assessed through a series of target and generalization probes. Results indicated that all children, irrespective of group status, acquired more lexical concepts in the ostensive labeling condition than in the story narrative condition. Overall, both groups acquired more object than action words, although subjects with ND comprehended more action words than subjects with DD. More target than generalization items were also comprehended by both groups. It is concluded that young children’s comprehension of new lexical concepts is facilitated more by a context in which simple ostensive labels accompany the presentation of specific objects and actions than one in which objects and actions are surrounded by thematic and event-related information. Various clinical applications focusing on the lexical training of young children with DD are discussed.

Eliciting Verbs From Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Frome Loeb ◽  
Clifton Pye ◽  
Sean Redmond ◽  
Lori Zobel Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Lexical Skills

The focus of assessment and intervention is often aimed at increasing the lexical skills of young children with language impairment. Frequently, the use of nouns is the center of the lexical assessment. As a result, the production of verbs is not fully evaluated or integrated into treatment in a way that accounts for their semantic and syntactic complexity. This paper presents a probe for eliciting verbs from children, describes its effectiveness, and discusses the utility of and problems associated with developing such a probe.

Productivity of Emerging Word Combinations in Toddlers With Specific Expressive Language Impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven H. Long ◽  
Lesley B. Olswang ◽  
Julianne Brian ◽  
Philip S. Dale
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Treatment Approach ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Semantic Consistency ◽  
Session Analysis

This study investigated whether young children with specific expressive language impairment (SELI) learn to combine words according to general positional rules or specific, grammatic relation rules. The language of 20 children with SELI (4 females, 16 males, mean age of 33 months, mean MLU of 1.34) was sampled weekly for 9 weeks. Sixteen of these children also received treatment for two-word combinations (agent+action or possessor+possession). Two different metrics were used to determine the productivity of combinatorial utterances. One metric assessed productivity based on positional consistency alone; another assessed productivity based on positional and semantic consistency. Data were analyzed session-by-session as well as cumulatively. The results suggest that these children learned to combine words according to grammatic relation rules. Results of the session-by-session analysis were less informative than those of the cumulative analysis. For children with SELI ready to make the transition to multiword utterances, these findings support a cumulative method of data collection and a treatment approach that targets specific grammatic relation rules rather than general word combinations.

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