normal for 3 year old to not understand 'why?'

[justageek]

I just went to my kids room to ask them if they want to do some painting, and hear my youngest start to cry. I went into the room, and asked my eldest (3.4 months) why is DD2 crying? She just repeated it back to me. I said, no its a question DD, i know DD2 is crying i am asking you why she is? again she just repeated it back to me.

I rephrased and asked what is DD2 crying for and she said they had been playing and banged heads. Okay no problems there, i told her thats okay, thanks for telling me and asked if they were both okay.

But it has made me realise that she has no concept of the word or query why? is this normal? How do i teach her it?

Very normal - DS2 is 4 and still doesn't totally get the "why" question.

DS1 was the same, but I tend to forget with DS2 as in general his vocabulary is really advanced for his age........but his brain doesn't quite get "why". I don't think I did anything to "teach" DS1 - he just gradually understood it.

i dont know why i was so suprised, i think because she is a very very good speaker and comes out with words like delicious in the right context etc, but i wont actively try teaching her then!

it still gets me - I asked DS2 yesterday "WHY" did you do that........and he just kept telling me what he'd done.......

I had raging PMT so probably didn't handle it too well

Yep, my DS (3.3 yrs) is exactly the same! Talks very well but still doesn't understand "why" questions and repeats the question back or just tells me what he is doing, not the reason why he's doing it...

A friend's DS suddenly understood why, it just clicked one day, and then his why questions started! that was at 3.6 yrs (which is quite early I think).

Completely normal for a 3 year old not to understand "why".

the w's are the hardest for them to grasp what where when and why my ds 3 knows none of them

actually DS2 had been asking "why" almost since he could talk......it's the actuall explaing of "why" he wants/did/whatever something that he can't do yet.

DS is 4yo & has just go the idea of Why.

So he asks it all the time, now.
Stop pulling your sister's hair!
Why? Where are you, mummy? Toilet. Why?

etc.
Really, trust me on this one, it's an over-rated milestone.