Grammatical knowledge in sentence comprehension

The author is testing a normally developing control child on a sentence comprehension test which involves saying “yes” or “no”, depending on whether a test sentence matches a picture: DB

“Mowgli says every monkey is tickling himself”

CHILD

You mean they are tickling themselves?

DB

Listen again: “Mowgli says every monkey is tickling himself”

CHILD

Right, so they are tickling themselves. Is that what you mean ?

DB

You try and work it out.

CHILD

(frustrated) Well, I could do it if you would say it properly.