Frog, where are you? The Acquisition of Discourse Skills

3 year old Narrative Its a bee. Theres a dog. And theres a frog, and slippers, and another slipper, and theres boots. Hes wake up! They put her head in the pot. Going down. The dog barked, and here they calling frog. Theres bees. And the hole in the tree. Ack! A owl. And hes running through there and he fell off. Look, oh, hes up there! Hes awake. He fell off, and he fell off of – in the pool. And theres no head! Then theres a frog. See, he caughted a frog. [3;8]

3 year old Narrative Its a bee. Theres a dog. And theres a frog, and slippers, and another slipper, and theres boots. Hes wake up! They put her head in the pot. Going down.

3 year old Narrative The dog barked, and here they calling frog. Theres bees. And the hole in the tree. Ack! A owl. And hes running through there and he fell off.

3 year old Narrative Look, oh, hes up there! Hes awake. He fell off, and he fell off of – in the pool. And theres no head! Then theres a frog. See, he caughted a frog. [3;8]

5 Year Old Narrative And then he – they were going to sleep, and then hes gonna go out the window. And then he had a jar stuck on his head…And then they were calling for the frog, and then he breaks the jar. Theres a beehive and a gopher. And the beehive fell down, and they look in the tree, and they start calling. And they think thats sticks, but its a – an antler. And then they run, and they go in the water. And behind that log is frogs. Theres some more frogs, and there another frog. The boy goes in the water, and they look and watch. Oh, theres one! He cant get up. [5;6]

5 Year Old Narrative And then he – they were going to sleep, and then hes gonna go out the window. And then he had a jar stuck on his head… And then they were calling for the frog, and then he breaks the jar. Theres a beehive and a gopher. And the beehive fell down, and they look in the tree, and they start calling.

5 Year Old Narrative And they think thats sticks, but its a – an antler. And then they run, and they go in the water. And behind that log is frogs. Theres some more frogs, and there another frog. The boy goes in the water, and they look and watch. Oh, theres one! He cant get up. [5;6]

9 Year Old Narrative Once there was a boy who had a pet frog and a dog. And that night he was watching it. And when he went to sleep, the frog got out of his jar and got away. The next morning, when he woke up, he saw that the frog was gone. So he put on his clothes, and the dog accidentally got his head stuck in the jar which the frog was kept in. They called out the window, and the dog fell down, and the glass jar broke, and the boy was mad at him.

9 Year Old Narrative So they went off to find his pet frog. And he looked in a hole and the dog was chasing the beehive. It was a home to a ground squirrel. And he got his nose scratched. And the dog was still over playing with the bees. The bees started to chase him, cause the beehive fell. The boy was calling the frog in this tree.

9 Year Old Narrative And then the dog was running away, because the bees were all chasing him, and he had fallen down because an owl poked him out of the tree. And the bees chased the dog, and the dog chased the boy to a rock, and he stood on the rock and called the frog. But a deer was on top, and it got him by his horns, and carried him to the edge of a cliff, with his dog chasing after, and threw them both into the lake, that was down below, and they both fell in. And then they heard some frogs chirping on the other side of the log.

9 Year Old Narrative So they went to the log, and they went over and saw his pet frog with a mate. And when they climbed over they saw that he had babies, too, and so the frog let them have one of his babies, instead of him. [9;1]

End