Download the PDF Program

Please determine which sessions you are able to attend based on your local time zone. Recordings of all sessions will be available following the symposium. 

You can find a time zone converter here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html. Some time zone conversions are offered below:

Schedule of Events

For each session, you will find below an overview of the schedule followed by detailed presentation listings. To see the abstracts, please scroll down or use the navigation buttons at the top of the page. If you are looking for a specific presentation or abstract, on a browser, use Ctrl + F (windows) or Cmd + F (mac), then type into the search bar.

Session Overview

🕰️ 8:00–8:10 a.m. MDT (local) 

Opening Remarks

Dr. Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux, Dr. Andrea MacLeod, and Dr. Marleen Westerveld

🕰️ 8:30–8:50 a.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Telling Personal and Fictional Tales: An Examination of Narrative Language in African American Children

Dr. Monique Mills

University of Houston, United States

Presented in person

🕰️ 9:10–9:30 a.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: Should I Repeat Myself?: The Function of Caregiver Repetitions in Reminiscing Conversations with Children with a Language Disorder

Dr. Charlotte Clark

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, United States

Presented online

🕰️ 9:50–10:10 a.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Clinical Applications of the Global TALES Protocol

Clinical A./Prof. Lisa Domby

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States

Presented in person

Session Overview

🕰️ 12:00–12:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Keynote Presentation: Global Initiatives in Narrative Language Sampling and Analysis

Dr. Natalia Gagarina and Dr. Marleen Westerveld

Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany; Griffith University, Australia

Presented in person

🕰️ 12:50–1:10 p.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: A Comparative Analysis of Personal Narratives Using the Global TALES Protocol with English- and French-Speaking 9–10-Year-Old Canadian Children

Tegan Hryciw

University of Alberta, Canada

Presented in person

🕰️ 1:30–1:50 p.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Translanguaging in Narratives of Multilingual Elementary School Children—A Pilot Study

Dr. Carla Kekejian and Dr. Mellissa Bortz

California State University Long Beach, United States; St. John's University, United States

Presented online

🕰️ 2:10–2:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Presenter Panel (Q&A)

Facilitated by Dr. Natalia Gagarina and Dr. Marleen Westerveld

Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany; Griffith University, Australia

Session Overview

🕰️ 4:00–4:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Keynote Presentation: Cultural Influences on Personal Narrative Development: Implications for Speech-Language Pathologists Working with Children and Adolescents with Communication Disorders

Dr. Angel Chan and Dr. Carol Westby

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China; Brigham Young University in Provo, United States

Presented in person

🕰️ 4:55–5:20 p.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Exploring Personal Narratives of Ghanaian Children

Josephine Ohenewa Bampoe

Charles Sturt University, Australia

Presented online

🕰️ 5:40–6:05 p.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: Emotion Expression in Chinese Culture: Coherence in Personal Narratives of Mandarin-speaking Children With and Without Autism

Wanlin Zhu

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Presented in person

Abstracts

🕰️ Session 1, 8:10–8:30 a.m. MDT (local) 

Keynote Presentation: Personal Narratives in Multilingual Contexts Within a Social-Justice Framework

Dr. Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux and Dr. Andrea MacLeod

University of Alberta, Canada

This keynote will outline how personal narratives can be used in multilingual contexts within a social-justice framework. Personal narratives (stories that children tell about their own experiences) provide authentic, comprehensive, and rich samples of their functional language skills representative of daily communication. The presentation will highlight how personal narratives can be useful tools for assessing language abilities of children, particularly within multilingual contexts, as they offer valuable insights that standardized tests might not capture. These narratives value the perspective of marginalized individuals, are strengths focused, and do not require comparisons to a normative expectation.

Presented in person 

🕰️ Session 1, 8:30–8:50 a.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Telling Personal and Fictional Tales: An Examination of Narrative Language in African American Children

Dr. Monique Mills

University of Houston, United States

Dr. Mills will present data from school-age African American child narrators, underscoring the social, linguistic and cognitive resources that children draw upon to narrate. She will show how children in her sample developed narrative microstructure and macrostructure across Grades 2 through 5. Cultural and clinical considerations will be addressed.

Presented in person

🕰️ Session 1, 8:50–9:10 a.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Narrating Happy and Worried Experiences: Coherence in Personal Stories of Hindi-speaking Children With and Without Autism

Vasundhara Srivastava

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Introduction: Sharing coherent personal narratives (PNs) contributes to psychosocial well-being, enabling children to process experiences, regulate emotions, and connect with others. Examining the coherence of PNs in autistic children can provide insights into their ability to recall personal past experiences and express emotions in a meaningful way.

Objective: This study compared the coherence of PNs about positive versus negative emotional experiences shared by children with and without autism. 

Methods: Thirty Hindi-speaking autistic children with low support needs (aged 6-9 years) and 30 neurotypical Hindi-speaking peers matched on age, expressive vocabulary, morphosyntactic competence, non-verbal IQ, and socio-economic-status shared PNs in response to "Excited" (positive) and "Worried" (negative) prompts from the Global TALES protocol adapted to Hindi. Responses were transcribed and analysed for global coherence (context, chronology and theme dimensions using the NaCCS*) and local indicators of global coherence (causal, temporal and thematic indicators). Statistical analyses were conducted in R using ordinal and Poisson regression models.

Results: Autistic children produced significantly more coherent PNs when sharing negative experiences compared to positive ones. Notably, their negative emotion narratives were significantly more coherent than those produced by their TD peers on several coherence measures (context; temporal and thematic indicators). 

Conclusion: Future research should investigate whether this pattern replicates across a broader range of positive versus negative emotional expressions in PNs and across different cultures.

Clinical implications: These findings suggest that interventions should consider emotional valence, with autistic children potentially needing targeted support for expressing positive emotional experiences in personal storytelling.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Recognize the importance of emotional valence in personal narratives of autistic children;

2. Identify the strengths and challenges of autistic children in sharing personal narratives; and

3. Apply the findings to inform personalized interventions that provide targeted support for autistic children in expressing positive emotional experiences in personal storytelling, ultimately enhancing their emotional regulation, social skills, and overall well-being.

Authors and affiliations: Vasundhara Srivastava1;2; Angel Chan1-4; Marleen Westerveld5

1Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2Research Centre for Language, Cognition, & Neuroscience (RCLCN), The Hong Kong

3Speech Therapy Unit, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

4The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – Peking University Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics

5 School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University, Australia

Presented online

🕰️ Session 1, 9:10–9:30 a.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: Should I Repeat Myself?: The Function of Caregiver Repetitions in Reminiscing Conversations with Children with a Language Disorder

Dr. Charlotte Clark

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, United States

Introduction: Research has demonstrated the impact a caregiver's reminiscing style has on a child’s personal narratives. An elaborative reminiscing style supports a child’s developing narrative abilities as well as many aspects of broader psycho-social development. However, recent studies have indicated that parents of children with language and communication challenges rely more on closed-ended prompts and repetitions during reminiscing. 

Objective: This study explains how caregiver repetitions functioned within the reminiscing conversations between caregivers and their children with and without a language disorder. 

Methods: Authors elicited reminiscing conversations between parents and their preschoolers with and without a language disorder (4 families with typical developing children and 4 families with a child receiving language intervention, all 8 from middle-class, Euro-American communities). Qualitative analysis was completed through a variety of inductive and verification methods including data immersion, constant comparison, thick description, and consensus building.  

Results: Caregiver repetitions functioned to set expectations and demonstrate multiple conversational roles for children with and without language disorder. Repetitions assisted caregivers in handing-over conversational role responsibilities to the child, and we argue that assuming responsibility for an interactional role is an important precursor to later symbolic and representational learning that occurs during reminiscing. 

Implications: Clinicians can support young children’s personal narratives by supporting a family’s reminiscing practices. A better understanding of how repetitions can function in reminiscing will allow clinicians to better tailor intervention to the needs of different families with different discourse styles. 

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1.  Examine the role of parent-child reminiscing to the development of personal narratives;

2.  Recognize the discourse elements of different reminiscing styles described in the literature across various cultural and clinical populations; and

3.  Identify multiple functions of caregiver repetitions in the reminiscing conversations of caregivers and preschooler children with a language disorder.

Authors: Charlotte Clark1; Emily Stover1; Laura Arrington2; Jack Damico3; Holly Damico2; Ryan Nelson2

1University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

2University of Louisiana, at Lafayette

3University of Colorado, Boulder

Presented online

🕰️ Session 1, 9:30–9:50 a.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Supporting Personal Narrative Development in Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): Case Studies of Clinical Practice

Prof. Kristine Jensen de López

Aalborg University, Denmark

Introduction: Compared to typically developing children personal narratives of children growing up with DLD have been shown to be less coherent regarding chronology and thematic elaboration.

Objectives: This study explores how to support young school-age Danish-speaking children with DLD in their development of personal narratives elicited with the Global TALES protocol in a clinical setting.

Methods: School-aged children (7-12 year-old) were invited to produce personal narratives elicited by the Global TALES protocol and were also tested with the standardized language test CELF-IV. Analyses of coherence in the personal narratives were used to plan individual short intervention sessions with the aim to support the child’s production of coherent personal narratives. Our clinical approach was motivated by the principles of dynamic assessment.

Results: The children’s performance on the Global TALES protocol varied. However, these differences were not reflected to the same degree in their performances on the standardized language test CELF-IV.

Conclusions and Clinical Implications: Results from our clinical practice suggest practitioners working with children growing up with DLD should be encouraged to consider integrating elicitation of personal narratives as an assessment tool to gain knowledge about the child’s functional language abilities. Practitioners should expect large individual differences in performance that do not necessary align with differences in language

abilities obtained by standardized language tests. In addition, our experiences using dynamic assessment intervention suggests young school-age children with DLD may improve their abilities to produce personal narrative when offered short sessions of individualized professional one-to-one support.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will obtain knowledge about:

1. The personal narratives of children with DLD;

2. How to support children with DLD in producing coherent personal narratives; and

3. How personal narrative elicitation using the Global TALES protocol can provide information about functional language use related to assessment and intervention with children with DLD.

Authors: Kristine Jensen de López1; Hanne Søndergaard Knudsen1

1Aalborg University, Denmark

Presented online

🕰️ Session 1, 9:50–10:10 a.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Clinical Applications of the Global TALES Protocol

Clinical A./Prof. Lisa Domby

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States

Introduction: The Global TALES protocol elicits personal narratives related to universal lived experiences, and has been made freely available for clinical use. The Global TALES procedure is especially useful for evaluation of narrative language ability in bilingual children.

Methods: The author has successfully implemented the Global TALES Protocol in a variety of clinical uses: translated Global TALES protocol from English to Spanish; worked with interpreters to translate Global TALES into Tz'Utujil, Kiche' and Kaqchikel; trained speech therapists and teachers to administer the Global TALES protocol; utilized grammaticality and utterance length measures to screen for presence of language impairment; conducted dynamic assessment to characterize presence of language differences and disorders.

Results: The Global TALES protocol has been successfully implemented in clinical applications to elicit personal narratives in bilingual children and to support development of language skills in children with language learning needs.

Conclusion: As hypothesized during the pilot study conducted by the IALP Child Language Committee, the Global TALES protocol is appropriate for cross-cultural and cross-linguistic clinical applications.

Clinical Implications: The Global TALES Protocol is based on universal lived experiences and is therefore suitable for translation and use with interpreters in assessment of narrative language in bilingual children. Narrative language samples obtained using Global TALES can be analyzed using a variety of measures, including grammaticality and utterance length. Dynamic assessment procedures focused on story elements, modifiability, and examiner effort can aid in determining presence or absence of language differences and disorders. 

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe best practice for working with interpreters to translate and use the Global TALES protocol for assessment of bilingual children;

2. Explain analysis methods for narrative language samples obtained with Global TALES; and

3. Characterize dynamic assessment procedures that can be used with Global TALES to differentiate language differences and disorders.

Presented in person 

🕰️ Session 2, 12:00–12:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Keynote Presentation: Global Initiatives in Narrative Language Sampling and Analysis

Dr. Natalia Gagarina and Dr. Marleen Westerveld

Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany; Griffith University, Australia

This keynote will outline the importance of global collaborations for research and clinical practice purposes. It will provide an overview of how research using MAIN (multilingual Assessment Instrument of Narratives) and Global TALES (Talking About Lived Experiences in Stories) has enhanced our theoretical understanding of cultural and linguistic influences on children's narrative performance, with clear implications for both researchers and clinicians working with children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Presented in person

🕰️ Session 2, 12:30–12:50 p.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: The Personal Narrative Skills of Croatian Children with Developmental Language Disorder: The Influence of Emotional Valence

Mateja Gabaj

University of Zagreb, Croatia

Introduction: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulties constructing personal narratives. However, previous studies have not used a wide range of measures reflecting functioning at four levels of discourse processing (linguistic, propositional, macrostructure-planning and pragmatic levels), as proposed in the LUNA framework [1].

Objective: This study examined whether the emotional valence of the narrated events (positive, negative) influenced children’s personal narratives at the four discourse levels.

Methods: Fifty ten-year-old Croatian-speaking children with DLD and 50 peers with typical language development (TLD) told personal narratives collected using the Global TALES protocol. Narratives were assessed at all four levels of discourse processing for both positive and negative events that the children recounted.

Results: Croatian-speaking children with DLD showed difficulties in personal narratives at all levels of discourse production, as evidenced by lower grammatical complexity and accuracy, more incomplete utterances, and lower local and global coherence. These difficulties can be observed, regardless of the emotional valence of the event.

Conclusion: Difficulties in the formation of personal narratives in children with DLD appear to be influenced more by language status (DLD/TLD) than by the emotional valence of the event. Language difficulties in children with DLD impact all levels of discourse processing and interact both bottom-up and top-down.

Clinical implications: To improve the academic and social outcomes of children with DLD, it is important to address challenges such as grammatical skills within discourse, the ability to construct globally coherent personal narratives, and the application of these narrative skills in everyday contexts. A case example will be used to illustrate how a child's grammatical skills affect the coherence of a personal narrative, and the child's difficulties at all four levels of discourse processing will be discussed.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will achieve the following learning objectives:

1. Regarding the effects of emotional valence at the four levels of the LUNA framework, the results showed that children’s ability to form personal narratives is not affected by the emotional valence of the experienced event.

2. Children with DLD, at the group level, may process emotional content of personal experiences similarly.

3. Addressing the weaknesses found in children with DLD, such as discourse-level grammatical skills and the ability to establish both local and global coherence in personal narratives, could be crucial to improving their academic and social outcomes.

References:

[1] Dipper, L., Marshall, J., Boyle, M., Hersh, D., Botting, N., & Cruice, M. (2021). Creating a theoretical framework to underpin discourse assessment and intervention in aphasia. Brain Sciences, 11(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020183

Presented online

🕰️ Session 2, 12:50–1:10 p.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: A Comparative Analysis of Personal Narratives Using the Global TALES Protocol with English- and French-Speaking 9-10-Year-Old Canadian Children

Tegan Hryciw

University of Alberta, Canada

Introduction: Much social interaction involves sharing past personally experienced events (i.e. personal narratives). In Canada, both English and French are official languages, and the population is highly multilingual. There is therefore a need for valid and culturally responsive tools to describe children’s functional language use. 

Methods: This study compared the personal narratives of 9- to 10-year-old predominantly French- and English-speaking Canadian children in response to the Global TALES protocol (in French or English), which uses six emotion-based prompts. Forty typically-developing children were recruited: 20 English-speaking and 20 French-speaking. The feasibility of the Global TALES protocol for eliciting personal narratives in English and French was examined, and participants’ personal narratives were analyzed for verbal productivity measures, topics, and coherence. 

Results: The Global TALES protocol was successful in eliciting personal narratives in both French and English (across all prompts, between 70-100%). No significant differences were found between the two language groups on any verbal productivity measures (including total number of utterances, number of different words and mean length of utterance in words). In terms of topics, both language groups resulted in similar topics across all prompts. For measures of coherence, English- and French-speaking children were also found to be equivalent on the majority of measures across prompts. 

Conclusions and Clinical Implications: This study confirms the feasibility of the Global TALES protocol with French- and English-speaking children from Canada. Understanding personal narrative similarities and differences across different languages and cultures will help speech-language pathologists better serve culturally and linguistically diverse children. 

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Reflect on the feasibility of the Global TALES protocol in English and French for eliciting narrative language samples;

2. Understand key similarities and differences between the topics of personal narratives of English and French speaking typically-developing children from Canada; and

3. Consider the development of narrative cohesion in the context of English and French speaking typically-developing children from Canada.

Authors: Pamela Filiatrault-Veilleux1; Tegan Hryciw1; Sidus Ang1; Marleen Westerveld2

1Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta

2School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University

Presented in person

🕰️ Session 2, 1:10–1:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Caregiver-Clinician Collaborations in the Assessment and Interventions of Personal Narratives

Dr. Charlotte Clark

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, United States

Introduction: One way clinicians account for cultural variation language practices is by working closely with caregivers. Motivational interviewing is a counseling framework that provides clinicians with tools to engage families so that services are informed by a family’s priorities and values. 

Objectives: This presentation will demonstrate how motivational interviewing strategies can support clinician-caregiver collaboration for the assessment and intervention of personal narratives. 

Methods: A case study, developed as part a larger study on motivational interviewing and clinician-caregiver collaboration, will illustrate the impact of motivational interviewing on narrative assessment and intervention for a five-year-old boy, growing up in the U.S., with Hmong and Scandinavian heritage.  

Results: The narrative assessment protocol (NAP) by McCabe and Bliss was used to assess two narrative samples—one independently elicited from the child, and one elicited with and scaffolded by the child’s mother. The clinician used observations of how the boy’s mother scaffolded his story combined with a subsequent parent interview to make clinical judgments in respect to the six narrative dimensions of the NAP. Collaborative goals were created to support the child’s use of specific names for people and places in stories, as his lack of information related to names was a primary safety concern for caregivers. Additionally, the clinician learned of the importance in sharing family histories to caregivers, so these types of narratives were incorporated into intervention on personal narratives. 

Conclusions and Clinical Implications: Motivational Interviewing is a valuable framework to guide clinicians’ collaboration with families in developing culturally responsive assessment and intervention for personal narratives. Motivational Interviewing can foster greater clinician-caregiver collaboration grounded in the priorities and values of a family.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify motivational interviewing counseling strategies that foster greater clinician-caregiver collaboration;

2. Examine clinical methods for gathering caregiver perspectives and priorities during the assessment and intervention of personal narratives; and

3. Explore the role of family histories in narrative intervention for personal narratives.

Authors: Charlotte Clark1; Gulalek Charyyeva2; Rebecca Jarzynski1; Jerry Hoepner1; Jamie Maxwell3; Ryan Nelson2

1University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

2University of Louisiana, at Lafayette

3 Marshall University

Presented online

🕰️ Session 2, 1:30–1:50 p.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Translanguaging in Narratives of Multilingual Elementary School Children—A Pilot Study

Dr. Carla Kekejian and Dr. Mellissa Bortz

California State University Long Beach, United States; St. John's University, United States

Introduction: Multilingual children often face barriers in speech-language assessment due to a lack of culturally and linguistically responsive tools. Translanguaging—the flexible use of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire—may offer a more equitable approach. This study explored whether personal narratives, elicited using the Global TALES protocol, provided an effective context for assessing translanguaging in Armenian-English and Hebrew-English bilingual children.

Objectives: This study aimed to: (1) examine whether bilingual children engaged in translanguaging when given bilingual instructions, (2) measure mean length of utterance in words (MLU-w) during translanguaging, and (3) analyze the types of words (verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions) most commonly translanguaged.

Methods: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods design was used. Six Armenian-English and two Hebrew-English bilingual children (ages 8–12) participated. Personal narratives were elicited using Global TALES in both English and the child’s home language. Narratives were transcribed and analyzed for translanguaging practices, MLU-w, and word types.

Results: All Armenian-English participants demonstrated inter-sentential translanguaging in Armenian, and three did so in English. Intra-sentential translanguaging occurred in five participants in Armenian and four in English. The average MLU-w was 8.43 (SD = 2.74), reflecting complex sentence production. Verbs were the most commonly translanguaged word type, followed by nouns, adjectives, and prepositions. No translanguaging was observed in the Hebrew-English participants, aligning with parent reports of separate language use at home.

Conclusions: Translanguaging emerged as a flexible and context-dependent strategy that supported narrative complexity and vocabulary access in Armenian-English bilingual children.

Clinical Implications: Incorporating translanguaging and tools like Global TALES can promote more equitable and culturally responsive assessment practices in speech-language pathology.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Define translanguaging and its relevance to speech-language assessment;

2. Understand the use of personal narratives as a tool for assessing language abilities in multilingual children; and

3. Discuss clinical implications of incorporating translanguaging and the Global TALES protocol into culturally responsive assessment practices.

Authors: Carla Kekejian1; Mellissa Bortz2

1 California State University Long Beach

2 St. John's University

Presented online

🕰️ Session 2, 1:50–2:10 p.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Global TALES Longitudinal: Ages 10 and 16

Dr. Nickola Nelson

Professor Emerita, Western Michigan University, United States

Introduction: This longitudinal follow-up to the original Global TALES study in the U.S. (included in Westerveld et al., 2022) is investigating changes in personal narratives between ages 10 and 16. 

Objectives: The goals of this longitudinal descriptive study are: (1) to describe the personal event narratives of 16-year-old adolescents who participated in the earlier study at age 10, and (2) to compare responses at Time 1 (age 10) and Time 2 (age 16) to the same prompts by the same participants. 

Method: 22 participants (11 females and 11 males) from the original U.S. sample provided personal narratives in response to the Global TALES data-collection protocol in 2019. Fifteen of them (4 females and 10 males) have been located who are willing to repeat the protocol in 2025 (data collection is currently underway). The only difference in methodology is that Zoom technology is being used at Time 2 to gather the samples. SALT software will be used in transcription, coding, and result summarization.

Results: We hypothesize measurable growth in microstructure and macrostructure variables representing increased personal narrative maturity. This includes an increase in the percentage of responses to the six prompts that qualify as personal narratives, compared to the low rate emerging from the ongoing Global TALES coherence study.

Clinical Implications: Having a roadmap of developmental changes in personal narrative maturity can guide clinicians around the world who seek to help students of all ability levels tell their stories.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to: 

1. State at least 3 changes that can be measured between personal narratives told to the same prompts at age 10 and age 16 by the same individuals;

2. Discuss differences between prompts in terms of productivity of responses at both ages; and

3. Describe characteristics that can signal a personal narrative as more or less mature. 

Presented in person

🕰️ Session 3, 4:00–4:30 p.m. MDT (local) 

Keynote Presentation: Cultural Influences on Personal Narrative Development: Implications for Speech-Language Pathologists Working with Children and Adolescents with Communication Disorders

Dr. Angel Chan and Dr. Carol Westby

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China; Brigham Young University in Provo, United States

Mental health support for young people has become increasingly critical globally. Such support fundamentally operates through language—specifically through conversations involving reminiscing, sharing personal experiences, and reflection. These interactions require the linguistic expression of personal narratives.

The ability to construct coherent personal narratives enables children/adolescents to benefit from mental health services and enhances communication with significant adults. Research highlights that the ability to tell coherent personal narratives is linked to psychological well-being, identity formation, and self-regulation, even when recounting negative experiences. Personal storytelling facilitates meaning-making, emotional processing, and establishing and maintaining social relationships.

Speech-language-pathologists (SLPs/SLTs) play a crucial role in supporting narrative development, particularly for individuals with communication disorders who often demonstrate weaknesses in personal narratives and increased vulnerability to mental health challenges. SLPs/SLTs practice within specific cultural contexts. Culture significantly influences narrative structure, content, and function, as well as parent-child reminiscing

practices. Delivering culturally responsive intervention requires sensitivity to cultural appropriateness for clients within their specific contexts.

This presentation synthesizes research on cultural influences on children's personal narrative development, highlighting the significant gap at the intersection of communication disorders and cross-cultural narrative research. Using data from recent investigations, we demonstrate

specific cultural influences on personal narrative expression. We conclude by identifying clinical implications and research needs to inform culturally appropriate interventions for children/adolescents with communication disorders. This framework bridges the research-to-practice gap by establishing foundations for interventions that balance cultural appropriateness with evidence-based practices, particularly when cultural traditions have communicative strengths and challenges that vary from clinical goals.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe cultural variations in personal narrative structure, content, and function as documented in the current literature;

2. Identify the specific cultural characteristics and patterns within sample personal narratives; and

3. Recognize the underpinning research necessary for understanding how children learn to interpret and generate personal narratives within their cultures and for informing culturally responsive clinical management of children and adolescents with communication disorders.

Presented in person

🕰️ Session 3, 4:30–4:55 p.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Assessment of Personal Narratives in Children with Language Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Vani Gupta

Griffith University, Australia

Introduction: Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) often experience difficulties in personal narrative production, impacting their social, academic, and emotional development. Comprehensive assessment of personal narrative abilities is essential for understanding individual needs and planning effective support.

Objectives: This systematic review explored existing literature on personal narrative assessment in children with DLD. It examined assessment methods and analysis measures used to evaluate performance, and applied the Linguistic Underpinnings of Narratives in Aphasia (LUNA) theoretical framework (Dipper et al., 2021) to identify which of its components – pragmatics, macrostructure planning, propositional, and linguistics – have been analysed. The review synthesised which measures were sensitive in identifying language difficulties. 

Methods: Electronic databases were searched in August 2022 and September 2024 for peer-reviewed studies and theses in English involving participants aged 4 to 18 years with a diagnosis of language disorder (including DLD or Specific Language Impairment). Data extracted included study design, participant characteristics, assessment tasks, and analysis measures. 

Results: Eleven studies met inclusion criteria, with variation in sample characteristics, narrative elicitation methods, and analysis measures used. All four LUNA components were addressed, with challenges reported across these for children with DLD. 

Conclusions: This review identified available assessment methods and analysis measures, but highlighted the limited evidence base. Applying the LUNA framework provided a nuanced understanding of personal narrative assessment in DLD, offering key insights for research and clinical practice. 

Clinical Implications: Personal narrative assessment aligns with neurodiversity-affirming practice and supports goal-setting, progress monitoring and outcome measurement for children with DLD.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will:

1. Understand the available evidence for assessment and analysis of personal narratives in children with DLD aged 4 to 18 years;

2. Learn about the LUNA theoretical framework, and its applicability to assessing personal narrative skills in children with DLD; and

3. Understand current gaps in the literature and explore which analysis measures show potential sensitivity in identifying narrative difficulties in children with DLD.

Authors: Vani Gupta1; Dr. Stephanie Malone2 ; Professor Lucy Dipper3; Professor Marleen Westerveld4

1 School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University

2 Autism Centre of Excellence, Griffith University

3Department of Language and Communication Science, City St George’s, University of London

4Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University

Presented online

🕰️ Session 3, 4:55–5:20 p.m. MDT (local) 

Invited Presentation: Exploring Personal Narratives of Ghanaian Children

Josephine Ohenewa Bampoe

Charles Sturt University, Australia

Introduction: Assessing the speech and language of multilingual children can be challenging. Assessment approaches that are not culturally responsive can lead to misdiagnosis of multilingual children. Personal narratives are a valid way of investigating children’s everyday language skills, but to date, no personal narrative studies have been undertaken on Ghanaian children.

Objective: This preliminary study explores the personal narrative coherence skills of Ghanaian English-speaking children.

Method: 18 children (8-10 years) were recruited through public and private schools in Tema, Ghana, as part of a doctoral study collecting speech and language data of typically developing Ghanaian English-speaking children. The children spoke a range of Ghanaian languages in addition to Ghanaian English. Children were seen face-to-face and produced personal narratives in response to the Global TALES protocol. Narratives in response to three prompts (happy, angry, problem-situation) were analysed using the revised Narrative Coding Scheme (Reese et al., 2011) on elements of context, chronology, and theme.

Results: All children produced at least two narratives in response to the three prompts. Most children included either information about time or place (context) to orient the listener but rarely provided both. About 75% of the actions in their discourse can be ordered along a timeline (chronology). Children’s personal narratives are generally on topic (theme) but there is minimal elaboration of actions and personal evaluation and no resolution.

Conclusion and Clinical Implications: This preliminary study establishes benchmarks for language development in Ghanaian English-speaking children, proving clinicians with culturally appropriate reference points to help in the identification of language disorders.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the specific ways in which Ghanaian English‑speaking children (8–10 years) typically include or omit elements of narrative coherence.

2. Explain how the Global TALES protocol was culturally appropriate for eliciting personal narratives from Ghanaian children.

3. Compare the Ghanaian benchmarks for narrative coherence with norms from other cultural-linguistic groups, highlighting both similarities and Ghana-specific differences.

Presented online

🕰️ Session 3, 5:20–5:40 p.m. MDT (local) 

Clinical Focus Presentation: Stories Fuel Our World: Maximizing Communication through Personal Narratives

Phương Liên Palafox

United States

Introduction: Personal narratives are powerful tools for communication, connection, and identity. This session explores how storytelling—by both students/clients/patients and clinicians—can strengthen expressive language, deepen therapeutic relationships, and support culturally responsive practices.

Objectives: Participants will (1) Describe the research foundations of personal narratives, (2) Identify strategies to elicit student storytelling in therapy, (3) Reflect on their own narratives to enhance clinical connection, and (4) Apply culturally responsive narrative-based practices across settings.

Methods: This interactive session blends research, case examples, and guided storytelling activities. Attendees will learn strategies to elicit and integrate students’ and clients’ personal narratives using literacy, clinician modeling, and multimodal supports. Emphasis will be placed on culturally and linguistically responsive approaches for diverse populations.

Results: Participants will leave with practical tools to use personal narratives in therapy to support expressive, receptive, and social communication goals. Case examples and participant reflections will highlight increased engagement, stronger relationships, and more meaningful outcomes.

Conclusions and Clinical Implications: Narratives bridge research and real-world practice. Storytelling allows students to develop language and voice while helping clinicians build empathy, trust, and connection. By centering personal stories, we fuel communication and affirm the diverse, worthy identities we serve.

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and describe strategies to elicit student storytelling in therapy;

2. Identify and describe multimodal forms of personal stories; and

3. Reflect on their own narratives to enhance clinical connection.

Presented online

🕰️ Session 3, 5:40–6:05 p.m. MDT (local) 

Research Presentation: Emotion Expression in Chinese Culture: Coherence in Personal Narratives of Mandarin-speaking Children With and Without Autism

Wanlin Zhu

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Introduction: Coherent personal storytelling about emotional experiences supports psychological well-being. Research in Western cultures suggests children tell more coherent stories about negative than positive emotions. Since Chinese culture often views negative emotion expression as a threat to social harmony, examining how Chinese children tell emotional stories offers valuable insights. Additionally, given the cultural emphasis on social positioning, storytelling about self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame) becomes important for development, alongside basic emotions (e.g., joy). Little research exists on personal narratives of Chinese-speaking autistic children, warranting investigation. 

Objective: This study investigated how emotion polarity (positive vs negative) and emotion types (basic vs self-conscious) affect personal narrative coherence among Chinese children.  

Methods: Mandarin-speaking children shared personal narratives in response to six prompts categorized as basic (happy vs. angry), self-conscious–exposed (admire vs. jealous), and self-conscious–evaluative emotions (proud vs. shameful). Three prompts were from the Global TALES Protocol (Westerveld et al., 2022), and three from Lewis’s emotional development framework (2000a). Narrative coherence was scored using Reese’s coding scheme (2011).

Results: First findings from 20 typically-developing 10-year-olds showed significantly higher coherence in positive than negative emotion narratives. Stories about basic emotions were also more coherent than those about self-conscious emotions. Data collection for the autistic group is in progress. 

Conclusion: These findings reflect general cognitive complexity differences across emotion types and culture-specific influences on emotional storytelling, resulting in culturally distinct narrative coherence patterns.

Clinical Implications: Speech pathologists should recognize specific cultural characteristics of personal narratives when developing culturally responsive practices in serving Chinese-speaking children with communication disorders. 

Upon attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Understand how cultural expectations and emotional expression in Chinese society influence the personal narrative coherence of children with and without Autism;

2. Identify differences in narrative coherence across emotion types (basic vs. self-conscious) and polarity (positive vs. negative) in Mandarin-speaking children with and without Autism; and

3. Apply culturally informed considerations to the assessment and intervention practices of speech-language pathologists working with Chinese-speaking children, especially those with communication disorders.

Authors: Wanlin Zhu1; Angel Chan1

1The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Presented in person