The magnetic properties of the cubic NaZn,, type pseudobinary compounds La(T,Si, _X),s were studied for T = Fe, Co and Ni in the temperature range 4.2-300 K. 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy was performed on LaFe,,Sia and "Fe-doped LaCo,,Si,.The compounds with T = Fe or Co are ferromagnetic, while the compound LaNi,,Si, is a Pauli paramagnet. The critical behaviour around the Curie temperature T, was studied in La(Fe,Si, _X)13 by measuring the temperature dependences of the zero-field susceptibility and the electrical resistivity. The critical exponent y in the expression x a (T -TC)-y was found to be close to 1.38 corresponding to an isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet. The anomalous critical behaviour shown by electrical resistivity can be explained in terms of lattice softening associated with the Invar effect.