Comprehension of 'because' and 'so': the role of prior event representation

Abstract

This study investigates the role of content familiarity in the comprehension of relational terms. Children aged 3;3 to 5;8 listened to stories and were asked to complete statements containing 'because' or 'so'. Half the stories concerned event sequences that were familiar to the children, and half were accompanied by pictures. When the story content was familiar, half the 3-year-olds and all of the remaining children demonstrated an understanding of at least one term. Half of the 4- and 5-year- olds succeeded with both. Pictures had little effect. These findings suggest that young children know the meaning of 'because' and 'so', and that later development involves changes in general language competencies such as the ability to create novel event representations from language input.