Two lines of research are synthesized in this study: (1) structural aspects of children's narrative discourse and (2) the role of maternal styles of talking with young children. Personal narratives of 20 Japanese preschool children, aged 4 and 5 years, and their mothers were analyzed for developmental differences in the 2 age groups. Then conversations between the same children and their mothers were analyzed for differences in narrative elicitation in the two age groups. Maternal statements about or requests for information about actions during narrative elicitation were found to be negatively associated with children's statements about actions in their monologic narrative productions. However, positive correlations were found in two domains: quantity and variety of words used by mother and child in the interaction, and duration of elicited and monologic narratives. It is concluded that how mothers interact verbally with their young children reflects the children's developing narrative skills. Contains 41 references. (MSE)