Departmental Colloquium: Young children’s reason-giving and meta-talk in collaborative decision making

During collaborative problem solving, partners might disagree, so have to convince one another why their proposals/claims are better than the other by giving reasons. This kind of reason-giving is termed “meta-talk” through which speakers discuss standards of reasons; comparing reasons or giving reasons about reasons. This ability has been mostly observed with older children. I will present and discuss some recent evidence about how young children are capable of producing meta-talk in the context of collaborative decision making.