At around 18 months of age, children combine simple actions to cause things to happen or change the way they interact with objects and people in order to see how it changes the outcome.
Developing cause and effect is an important stage in a child’s play, learning and social communication development. This kind of play, helps the child to learn that their actions can cause something to happen. When a child pushes a ball down a hole the all falls, when the child pulls on an adult they come.
By forming their own generalizations, children can more efficiently understand new information. Children begin to develop cause-and-effect thinking skills as early as eight months of age.
www.cde.ca.gov.
