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Spontaneous conversations with preschoolers often involve personal narratives, which involve sharing past experiences in an organized manner. The storyteller must ensure their narrative is engaging to maintain the listener's attention. Children who struggle with narrative abilities fall at risk for learning difficulties and literacy-related challenges, such as reading problems. Analyzing narratives can help identify children's language impairments from their typically developing peers. Retelling narratives is crucial in bridging the gap between oral and written language and is essential for proper reading and writing development.
Assessment Strategies
Personal Narrative: Elicit a language sample that includes a personal narrative, and analyze its microstructure (grammar, syntax, content, form) and macrostructure (organization and cohesiveness of story, to locate breakdowns).
Strength: This type of assessment allows one to simultaneously gain knowledge on multiple aspects of the child's expressive strengths and weaknesses.
Weakness: This type of unstandardized/qualitative data cannot be used to help establish eligibility for school services.
2. Test of Narrative Language (TNL):
Strength: TNL is a norm-referenced test and it measures children's narrative language abilities. In other words, the ability to understand and tell stories. This formal assessment includes narrative retell, story generation, and comprehension activities.
Weakness: The normative sample is smaller than the TNL-2 (5–12 for the original TNL as compared to 4–15 for the TNL-2)
Intervention Approaches
Strength: Students can touch and manipulate the story grammar icons, so this is a tangible tool useful for those who benefit from more tangible/tactile learning.
Weakness: Parts can be easily lost due to their manipulative nature
Story Grammar Marker:
Story Grammar Marker:
A manipulative tool used to aid narrative development.
A manipulative tool used to aid narrative development.
Each symbol or icon on the Story Grammar Marker represents an element of a story
Main character(s)
Setting (time/place)
Initiating/"Kick-off" event -- occurrence that influences the main character to take action
Internal Response -- indicates the main character's thoughts/feelings in response to the initating event
Plan -- indicates the intended action(s) of the main character
Attempt(s) or Action(s) -- indicates the actions of the main character in pursuit of their goal
Consequence -- indicates achievement or nonachievement of the main character's goal, as well as any other events that might result from the attempt
Resolution -- includes any emotional response of the main character to the preceding chain of events
Strength: Children with greater language can receive more intensive intervention and children with fewer needs can participate in a low dose intervention. The classroom teacher can deliver lessons in the large group setting while the SLP delivers small group or individual lessons in individual sessions.
Weakness: Large group intervention can be challenging for children due to the various instructions, time constraints, and peer distractions.
Story Champs:
The Story Champs intervention is an easy to use, well researched and multi-tiered language intervention method.
The Story Champs intervention is an easy to use, well researched and multi-tiered language intervention method.
Each icon of Story Champs represents a story grammar element. These icons serve as a manipulative and visual support to help make abstract structures more concrete.
Story Grammar Elements:
Character
Setting
Problem
Internal Response (Feeling)
Plan
Attempt(s) or Action(s)
Conseque
Ending Emotion
One way caregiveres and/or teachers can help kids who demonstrate disorganized/poorly formed narratives is to use actions, dialogue, and interactive activities/stimuli when telling stories to make character motivations and emotions more clear to listeners.
References
References
Baxter, A. & Van Lingen, G. (2005). Test review of the Test of Narrative Language. In Spies, R.A. and B. S. Plake (Eds.), The sixteenth mental measurement yearbook (pp. 1040-1045). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
Hughes, D., (2001, Oct) Assessment of Narrative Abilities in Preschool and School-Age Children. Perspectives in Language Learning and Education. pp. 7-11.
McCabe, A., & Rollins, P. R. (1994). Assessment of preschool narrative skills. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 3(1), 45–56
Spencer, T. D., Kajian, M., Petersen, D. B., & Bilyk, N. (2013). Effects of an individualized narrative intervention on children’s storytelling and comprehension skills. Journal of Early Intervention, 35(3), 243-269.
Spencer, T. D., Weddle, S. A., Petersen, D. B., & Adams, J. A. (2018). Multi-tiered narrative intervention for preschoolers: A Head Start implementation study. NHSA Dialog, 20(1), 1-28.
Story champs about. Language Dynamics Group. (2021, July 29). https://www.languagedynamicsgroup.com/story-champs-2/story-champs-about/
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