Abstract: Understandings for animal reproduction from two sides of filial and parental generation were examined in 128 children aged 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds by the interview and the classifying task. The results indicated that 4 levels of the less understanding, the partial understanding, the general understanding, and completed understanding were identified. Children 6 years old could appreciate animal reproduction and distinguish animal with inanimate objects in terms of reproduction. In addition, there were intra-individual differences, for instance, first, children’s understanding for animal and inanimate objects was different on the different tasks; second, difference of task was only effective to 5- to 6-year-olds children who were in the period of relative rapid development; third, children had better performance for feature of reproducing-after-growing-up than that of generation-after-generation., and better performance for generation-reproducing-generation than that of tracing-to-derivation.

Key words: preschoolers, theory of naï, ve biology, reproduction