Data from referential communication studies with children four, five, and seven years old were examined with respect to metaphorical productions. Speakers in the task were 24 "primed" four-year-old children and 72 "nonprimed" four-, five-, and seven-year-old children equally divided by age. Priming consisted of asking questions that would elicit knowledge that was relevant to the task at hand, which involved describing photographs of dogs and of people's faces to an adult listener. Feedback of a verbal and visual form was provided. Vocabulary was assessed in a posttest. Analyses of variance revealed that the "primed" four-year-old children produced significantly more metaphors than the nonprimed groups. Results were examined with respect to the priming procedure's ability to promote verbal creativity in young children. (Author/RL)