The purpose of this ethnographic study was to describe children's verbal information-seeking behavior in different naturalistic settings and to explore factors in those settings other than school which might have bearing on a child's propensity to seek information in school. Subjects were six girls in the same sixth grade classroom. Audio and video tapes were made of their spontaneous interaction at home with their parents, in large and small groups at school, and in peer groups. Interaction from the tapes was transcribed verbatim and instances of information-seeking behavior were classified by form as interrogative or non-interrogative and by function as high or low level. Frequencies and percentages of instances classified by form and function were calculated across all settings and by subject. The major findings of the study pertained to mothers of children who were active information-seekers in all settings. These mothers (1) recognized and responded directly to their children's information-seeking behavior, (2) encouraged their children to persist in information-seeking behavior until the children received answers, and (3) modeled information-seeking behaviors themselves. (Author/MP)