We had two articles answering the same question, so we merged them. Everything below now lives, with the full research behind it, in why your child asks so many questions, and what 107 an hour actually means.
The short version
Preschoolers ask roughly 107 questions an hour in conversation with a parent, and about 40,000 questions in total between the ages of two and five. What changes over those years is not the volume but the type: questions that ask for an explanation rise from around 4 percent at two years old to about 30 percent at five. That shift is why the why phase seems to arrive all at once.
Children are not asking for attention. Research on what they do immediately after an answer shows they follow up and build on a real explanation, and simply repeat the question when the answer explains nothing. A repeated question is feedback, not provocation.
The practical takeaway is that a good answer names a mechanism rather than restating the fact. Because it is autumn is circular. The tree stops feeding its leaves to save energy for winter explains how. Children remember explanatory answers better, and trust the person who gave them more on later topics.
Where to read the detail
The full guide covers the observational studies behind the 107 figure, what researchers found about who answers and how often, the four replies that work when you have run out of patience, and whether curiosity really gets switched off as children grow. Read the full guide on children's questions.
If you came here wondering whether a talking toy can take some of the load during the why phase, that question is answered there too, alongside vocabulary milestones by age and what self-talk means at ages 3 to 7, which come from the same stage of development.
