The recognition of linguistic stereotypes based on gender and actual speech production were examined in 10 four-year-old and 10 six-year-old children. Eight linguistic forms were presented to the children in two different contexts in a story. After each sentence containing one of the forms, the children were asked whether a boy or girl had spoken, and occasionally asked to explain that choice. Analysis of the transcribed story-telling and responses show that affect was the strongest explanation for gender-marked items. Six-year-old boys appear to make judgments more in line with adult gender stereotypes. Assumptions about the kind of explanation associated with gender-marked items were largely borne out. However, it was not clear whether children fit their explanations to their choices in some cases, or chose in terms of their explanations, which represented their understanding of the event. Results were found to be congruent with earlier research on children's development of social gender identities. (MSE)