Why do children call themselves by their name?


Why is that young children call themselves by their first name when referring
to themselves? This question is similar to [Speaking in the third
person](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/2320/1328); however, young
children do not understand the connotations of speaking in the third person.

My fiance's cousin who is six refers to herself as ゆりちゃん. Is the only reason
she calls herself by her own name because everyone calls her ゆりちゃん when
talking to her? When do children stop referring to themselves in the third
person and why?




@JesseGood's answer is correct, but just to add to it:

Not only will other people refer to kids by their name, they will often also
refer to _themselves_ by title when speaking to them. I.e. their mother/father
will likely refer to themselves as "お母さん/お父さん" or "ママ/パパ" and their teacher to
him/herself as "先生" when speaking to them. They might not hear personal
pronouns much at all in their daily lives.

Thus, it's not surprising that kids learn that people have a label which is
used independently from who is using it. Kids have to learn to use pronouns
_at all_ , which is quite different from the problem of learning to use I/you
_correctly_ , which seems to be common in languages where pronouns are more
commonly used.




@JesseGood's answer is correct, but just to add to it:

Not only will other people refer to kids by their name, they will often also
refer to _themselves_ by title when speaking to them. I.e. their mother/father
will likely refer to themselves as "お母さん/お父さん" or "ママ/パパ" and their teacher to
him/herself as "先生" when speaking to them. They might not hear personal
pronouns much at all in their daily lives.

Thus, it's not surprising that kids learn that people have a label which is
used independently from who is using it. Kids have to learn to use pronouns
_at all_ , which is quite different from the problem of learning to use I/you
_correctly_ , which seems to be common in languages where pronouns are more
commonly used.

