Children’s developing understanding of language may influence their ability to accurately respond to questions inquiring about their event knowledge (i.e., Why and How Come questions), potentially creating misinterpretations in adult–child communication. The present study examined 120 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old’s accuracy in responding to Why and How Come questions about the cause of their behaviors. Children’s accuracy improved with age, highlighting a developmental milestone whereby children become highly accurate by 7 years of age. Further, the semantic differences in question type did not influence children’s responses, as there were no differences in children’s accuracy when answering Why or How Come questions. The findings from this study highlight the developmental shift in children’s abilities to answer Why and How Come questions, and thus the importance of considering the age and linguistic abilities of the child when inquiring about their event knowledge.

儿童对语言的理解能力的发展可能会影响他们准确回答询问其事件知识的问题（即为什么和如何出现的问题）的能力，从而可能在成人与儿童的交流中产生误解。本研究检查了 120 名 5 岁、7 岁和 9 岁儿童在回答有关其行为原因的原因和方式问题时的准确性。儿童的准确性随着年龄的增长而提高，突出了一个发展里程碑，即儿童在 7 岁时变得高度准确。此外，问题类型的语义差异不会影响儿童的反应，因为儿童在回答“为什么”或“如何来”问题时的准确性没有差异。这项研究的结果强调了儿童回答“为什么”和“如何”问题的能力的发展转变，