To determine normative story recall behavior for 5-year-old prekindergarten children, and to compare their recall of stories with recall of comparable chronological/descriptive passages, a study tested 30 nonhandicapped prekindergarten children. Each subject was read a 95-word, second-grade level story and immediately asked to "tell me what I said." Five of the seven key story parts were recalled by a majority of the subjects, with more information recalled from stories (usually including key elements) than from descriptive passages (usually including non-essential details). Stories were usually recalled in appropriate sequence; descriptive passages were not. A related second study trained a small number of children with deficient story recall ability to recall single-episode stories, compared the learning patterns of language-disabled children with nonhandicapped children, and examined whether improved recall of stories (trained) generalizes to increased recall of descriptive passages (untrained). Compared to the average normative subject, intervention subjects learned to recall at least as many critical elements and more specific content of stories, and to use more words in the retelling. Recall of descriptive passages also improved. These findings imply that (1) 5-year-old children typically recall significant portions of stories, and in proper sequence, (2) stories are preferable to descriptive passages as learning tools for prekindergarten children, and (3) children deficient in story recall can be taught to recall as well as a normative group. (JG)