This article lays out a program of research designed to address one specific need of young children--to learn how to write--based on one specific ability of young children--the ability to tell stories. The model underlying this research program describes how non-screen-and-keyboard-based technologies that "listen" to children can be used to support their emergent literacy behaviors and have an effect on their subsequent writing skills. Four components comprise the model: the importance of "emergent literacy behaviors", which are features of literate language that are demonstrated in children's oral language; the critical role played by a "socially situated peer"; the design of "non-keyboard-based computational technologies"; and the potential of information technologies that encourage "construction" rather than "consumption". This article presents information about one kind of technology that fits the model--the "story listening system (SLS)"--and describes a number of implemented SLS and an evaluation of their use by children.