ABSTRACT
In Part II of this book, I have been concerned with the organization and reorganizations of the use of self reference forms by six children acquiring English as a first language. In this chapter I discuss the joint implications of the various case studies. In the first section, I pull together the separate findings from the various children. I consider two central questions. First, given that the discussion focused on two groups of children, I reconsider the evidence that these groups represent two phases in the organization of self reference systems rather than individual differences. Second, I consider the similarities and differences between the developmental paths traveled by the various children en route to an adultlike system. In the second section of this chapter, I am concerned with various ways to account for the original organizations of form and function by the ego-anchored children; and in the third section, I turn to the question of what leads children to give up their original systems.
