A study is presented that considers the narrator's knowledge of conventional schemata for stories and the cognitive factors which seem to be affecting the selection and organization of material for narration. Children ranging in age from 3 years 10 months to 7 years 4 months were asked to watch a video tape cartoon and recount the story to a person who had not seen the cartoon. The same procedure was followed with 10 adult university students. It was found that both children and adults used a problem-resolution schema as the major source of content selection. The children differed from the adults in the following points: (1) they used very little introductory matter; (2) they did not resolve all the problems and in some cases neglected to present the problem initially; (3) younger children included irrelevant information; (4) they generally did not provide a setting for the events; (5) they used different types of transitions between episodes; (6) sometimes they reversed the order of events; and (7) children often needed an image as a memory prompt. Examination of the data reveals which aspects of story schemata are being learned during a particular period, and suggests how development of discourse skills is influenced by certain cognitive developments. (AMH)