The patterns of development in generated narratives of a group of typically developing South African children aged 5 to 9 years

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Narrative skills have found to be a predictor of academic success with clear correlations to laterreading and writing abilities in children. The quality of narratives and the language disordersdisplayed in specific clinical populations has also been correlated, making narratives a usefuldiagnostic tool. To be able to know what is atypical, one has to know what is normal. Normativebased assessment materials are very limited in South Africa. Commercially availableassessments are often inappropriate because of the complex nature of narratives and theinfluence of socio-economic, linguistic and cultural factors. There is therefore a need not only todevelop appropriate assessment materials but also to obtain normative data for use in the SouthAfrican context.The main research question this study attempted to answer is: What are the patterns of narrativedevelopment in normally developing children? A total of 62 typically developing children fromschools in a middle class residential area was selected. Three different age groups wereidentified: Grade R (5 to 6 years), Grade 1 (6 to 7 years) and Grade 3 (8 years 6 months to 9years 6 months) based on their different exposure to literate language. It was assumed that theywould display distinct patterns of narrative development, with an increase in the complexity ofnarrative features with age. A wordless picture book, regarded as appropriate for the SouthAfrican context, was developed and used to elicit a narrative from each participant. Narrativeswere analysed using a comprehensive narrative assessment protocol. Assessment areasincluded macrostructure, microstructure, use of literate language and the use of abstraction.Results were compared in terms of group differences and developmental trajectories.The assessment protocol showed similar story lengths in all age groups, suggesting that whenthe developed wordless picture book was used as elicitation stimulus, any significant differencesbetween groups could be of diagnostic value. Results showed clear developmental trajectoriesin terms of macrostructural measures. The group differences between Grade R and Grade 1 interms of microstructural measures were not significant. There was, however, a significantincrease in terms of syntactic complexity and lexical diversity from Grade R to Grade 3. Nosignificant development was observed in terms of the use of literate language features acrossthe year groups and a group effect was offered as a possible explanation. In contrast to concretestatements, children as young as 5 years old used mainly abstractions in their generatednarratives.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University