The Form and Function of Children's Questions

Abstract

A comparison of the question-asking behavior among two groups of children separated by a span of some 33 years (from time of collection) indicates that the underlying developmental processes involved in the question-asking behavior of children has changed very little. In general, the data support Piaget's conceptualizations concerning question-asking behavior, especially with respect to questions focusing on physical causality. The data also indicate that females are more sophisticated in their question-asking behavior, which reflects their advanced linguistic skills.