How Conversations with Parents May Help Children Learn to Separate the Sheep from the Goats (and the Robots)

We examined how children’s active participation in parent–child conversations helps them organize the conceptual space of the animal domain. Three complementary research studies inform our understandings: (1) a diary study of family conversations about animals, (2) an investigation of how parent–child conversations about the properties of varied living and nonliving entities may inform children’s developing understanding of animacy, and (3) an examination of parent–child conversations about animals that vary in similarity to humans. We found that parents share information that is scientifically accurate alongside information that may encourage anthropomorphic and anthropocentric reasoning about animals. This information is greeted by an active child who can sort through the give-and-take of conversation to (ultimately) construct coherent representations of the biological domain. This rich portrait of parent–child conversation contrasts with the model of the child as a mere recipient of parental wisdom.