The purpose of this study was to describe the strategies mothers employ to elicit clarifying information from their children in a situation in which the children were reporting a past event. Forty 2-year-old children individually participated in a mock birthday party with the experimenter. Immediately afterwards, the mothers (20 of whom had observed the activity and 20 who had not) elicited information about the party from their children. The requests for clarification presented by the mothers were coded for contingency to the previous utterance, pragmatic function, and grammatical structure, while the responses presented by the children were coded for appropriateness. For the purposes of this study, request for clarification is defined as a statement or question directed by the mother to her child which indicated that she needs repeated, confirmed, or additional information in order to understand the child's report. Results and their implications are discussed. Additionally, results of analyses are indicated in numerous tables, and coding protocols are appended. (Author/RH)