Using a conversation analytical, social interactionist approach to cognition, Woottonexamines the requests made by his daughter between 18 and 36 months of age in interaction withher parents. He analyzes in detail “distressing events” or seemingly irrationaltemper tantrums to develop a theory of cognitive development based on the sequentiality ofconversational interaction. By correlating her use of imperatives and, later, of more polite formsof requests, Wootton is able to show how the child identifies and draws on expectations of sharedunderstanding, established through local interactional sequences of conversation, to develop hersense of cognitive relevance and moral rectitude. The intensity of the child's distress atseeing her expectations flouted leads Wootton to claim that the nature of these understandings islocal, public, and moral: The child's cultural awareness is fashioned and criticallyconditioned precisely by those forms of sequential and interactional organization she begins tocome to grips with at about the age of 2.