Global TALES Network 

The growing number of children across the world who speak more than one language (Piccardo 2018) presents a unique challenge for speech-language pathologists and educators in distinguishing between language differences (i.e., due to cultural and/or linguistic variations) and language disorders (i.e., due to a neurodevelopmental disorder learning [any] language) (e.g. Bedore & Peña, 2008). Over- and under-identification of children with developmental language disorders can result in both inappropriate early intervention efforts and  significant long-term negative socio-emotional and academic implications for children in need of support (McGregor, 2020).

Telling stories about past personal experiences plays an important role across cultures (Westerveld & Nelson, 2023), and approximately 50% of children’s daily conversations have been shown to involve these types of stories, known as personal narratives (e.g., Preece, 1987). Thus, personal narratives can be both functional and representative of children's communication in natural contexts. 

Recent studies have shown that analysis of children's personal narratives may be used as an authentic language assessment tool, as it offers a comprehensive and rich sample of a child's functional language skills representative of daily communication. However, although personal narratives are produced by children of all cultures, few tools and methods are available to speech-language pathologists wanting to evaluate these skills in culturally and linguistically diverse children. To address this urgent need and gap in knowledge, members of the Child Language Committee of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) have founded in 2018 a special interest group, the Global TALES (Talking About Lived Experiences in Stories) Network. The Global TALES Network currently involves more than 50 researchers, speaking over 20 languages, from 26 countries around the world, investigating personal narratives in school-age children using the Global TALES (Talking About Lived Experiences in Stories) protocol (Westerveld et al., 2022). 

The Global TALES protocol consists of six scripted prompts for eliciting personal narratives, each about a different type of experience. The aim of the Global TALES project is to investigate the quality of personal narratives in school-age children and adolescents with and without language disorders across a range of language abilities, cultures, countries, and languages. The protocol, now available in many different languages, can be found here: https://osf.io/ztqg6/.

References

Bedore, L. M., & Peña, E. D. (2008). Assessment of bilingual children for identification of language impairment: current findings and implications for practice. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.2167/beb392.0 

McGregor, K. K. (2020). How we fail children with developmental language disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51(4), 981-992. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00003 

Piccardo, E. (2018). Plurilingualism: vision, conceptualization, and practices. In: Trifonas, P., Aravossitas, T. (eds) Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44694-3_47 

Preece, A. (1987). The range of narrative forms conversationally produced by young children. Journal of Child Language, 14(2), 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900012976 

Westerveld MF, Lyons R, Nelson NW, Chen KM, Claessen M, et al. (2022) Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world. PLOS ONE 17(8): e0273114. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273114 

Westerveld, M. F., & Nelson, N. W. (2023). Evaluating children’s personal narrative skills using the Global Tales Protocol: Implications for Practice. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75(6), 363–367. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534510 

The Global TALES Network Symposium

The Global TALES Network Symposium is an international hybrid symposium that aims to connect: 

(1) established international experts involved in the Global TALES Network, who will be presenting a keynote; 

(2) event presenters consisting of PhD students, emerging, and established scholars who will share current and ongoing research using personal narratives and/or Global TALES; and 

(3) speech-language pathologists from around the world interested in embedding personal narrative assessment in their clinical practice to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse children. 

The symposium is free for presenters and registered attendees and will lay the foundation for future international collaborations among researchers and speech-language pathologists to accelerate translation of research into practice. In addition, the symposium will provide an opportunity for child language researchers and graduate students to connect, network, and share their current research.

The event is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection grant and a University of Alberta Killam Research Fund Research Connection Grant (awarded to Filiatrault-Veilleux, Westerveld and MacLeod).

Recent Publications from the Global TALES Network

Einarsdóttir JT, & Þráinsdóttir E. (2023). Personal narratives of 10-year-old children in Iceland– verbal productivity, word diversity, and topics. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75 (6): 372–381. http://doi.org/10.1159/000533134

Ferman S, & Kawar K. (2023). Tele-assessment of oral personal narratives in Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking children using the Global TALES protocol. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75 (6): 456–469. https://doi.org/10.1159/000533833.

Gabaj, M., Kuvač Kraljević, J., & Westerveld, M. F. (2024). Linguistic organisation and coherence in personal narratives of 10-year-old children with developmental language disorder. First Language, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241298163

Lyons R, Antonijevic-Elliott S, Barbotin S, Molloy M, O'Malley-Keighran MP, Spelman J. (2023). Feasibility of using the Global TALES protocol to elicit personal narratives in 10 year-old children in Ireland. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75 (6): 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1159/000533140.

Kuvač Kraljević, J., Matić Škorić, A., & Gabaj, M. (2023). Personal narratives of school-age children: A cross-sectional developmental study. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75 (6): 412–430. https://doi.org/10.1159/000533399

Maviş, İ., & Yaşar-Gündüz, E. (2023). Evaluating the Personal Narrative Skills of Monolingual Turkish-Speaking 7- and 10-Year-Old Children with Typical Development through Global TALES: A Pilot Study. Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica, 75(6), 382–392. https://doi.org/10.1159/000533292 

Srivastava, V., Chan, A., & Westerveld, M. F. (2023). What do children in India talk about: Personal narratives of typically developing Hindi-speaking children. Folia Phoniatrica Et Logopaedica, 447-455. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534298

Westby, C. E., Chen, K. M., Lee, J. P., & Wong, A. M. (2023). Topic and Content of Personal Narratives of Children from Three East Asian Cultures and Three English-Speaking Cultures: A Collaborative Qualitative Analysis. Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica, 75(6), 431–446. https://doi.org/10.1159/000533559

Westerveld MF, Lyons R, Nelson NW, Chen KM, Claessen M, Ferman S, et al. (2023) Correction: Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world. PLoS ONE, 18(10): e0293705. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293705

Westerveld, M. F., & Nelson, N. W. (2023). Evaluating children’s personal narrative skills using the Global Tales Protocol: Implications for Practice. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 75(6), 363–367. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534510 

Global TALES Contact Information

If you wish to be involved in the Global TALES Network or to learn more about its initiatives, please visit https://osf.io/ztqg6/ and contact Prof. Marleen Westerveld (m.westerveld@griffith.edu.au) or Asst. Prof. Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux (pfiliatr@ualberta.ca).