Development in narrative competences from oral to written stories in five- to seven-year-old children

Pinto, Giuliana; Tarchi, Christian; Bigozzi, Lucia

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.001

Cited by 55 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Past studies on narrative development indicated that entering primary school exerts a disruptive effect on children's narrative competence development, both when children are learning to write (Bigozzi & Vettori, ) and when writing skills should be consolidated (Pinto, Tarchi, & Bigozzi, , ). Such an effect may extend to MST if influenced by narrative competence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two studies conducted by Pinto et al . (, , ) investigated kindergarten and primary school children separately and with two different research designs, whereas in this study both age groups are included and given the same task. Moreover, prior studies have demonstrated that the structural component plays a pivotal role in narrative competence development (Pinto, Tarchi, & Accorti Gamannossi, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

Tarchi

Bigozzi

Pinto

2019

British J of Dev Psycho

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This study investigates the relationships between narrative competence and mental state talk at different age levels. Specifically, we explored whether a higher level of structure in narratives is associated with children's mental state talk, and whether this effect is moderated by age (kindergarten, lower and upper primary school). The participants in the study were 172 Italian children. The children were asked to tell a story and their productions were coded for narrative structural level and mental state talk. Data showed higher levels of narrative structure were associated with a higher frequency of emotional, cognitive, moral, and socio-relational terms. Results of the present study contributed to improve our understanding about how mental state talk and narrative competence are associated in different ways at different ages. This result suggests that children may develop in the ability to coordinate mental state talk and narrative structure as an effect of both, age and schooling.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

Tarchi

Bigozzi

Pinto

2019

British J of Dev Psycho

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“…Fourthly, generalization of results is limited by the research design of this study, in particular by the use of oral narratives. Prior studies have demonstrated the presence of a discontinuity in children’s narrative competence, when writing is introduced (Pinto et al, 2015, 2016b). In primary school children are asked to write their narratives, rather than tell them, but we believe in the importance of keeping oral narratives in primary school too, given their fundamental role in eliciting and organizing children’s ToM through the use of mental state talk (Guajardo and Watson, 2002; Pinto et al, 2016a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following, mental state talk scores were transformed into percentiles. There are several ways to explore children’s narrative competence, adopting both continuous data (Haden et al, 1997; Fivush et al, 2006), and categorical data (Bigozzi and Vettori, 2015; Pinto et al, 2015, 2016b). In this study, narrative competence variables (i.e., mental state talk, structure, cohesion, and coherence) were re-coded into a 3-point scale using the percentile distribution: the first point was for scores lower than the 33rd percentile, the second point for scores between the 33rd and the 66th percentile and, finally, the third point corresponded to scores higher than the 66th percentile.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Interaction Does Not Always Improve Children’s Mental State Talk Production in Oral Narratives. A Study in 6- to 10-Year-Old Italian Children

2016

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Joint narratives are a mean through which children develop and practice their Theory of Mind (ToM), thus they represent an ideal means to explore children’s use and development of mental state talk. However, creating a learning environment for storytelling based on peer interaction, does not necessarily mean that students will automatically exploit it by engaging in productive collaboration, thus it is important to explore under what conditions peer interaction promotes children’s ToM. This study extends our understanding of social aspects of ToM, focusing on the effect of joint narratives on school-age children’s mental state talk. Fifty-six Italian primary school children participated in the study (19 females and 37 males). Children created a story in two different experimental conditions (individually and with a partner randomly assigned). Each story told by the children, as well as their dialogs were recorded and transcribed. Transcriptions of narratives were coded in terms of text quality and mental state talk, whereas transcriptions of dialogs were coded in terms of quality of interaction. The results from this study confirmed that peer interaction does not always improve children’s mental state talk performances in oral narratives, but certain conditions need to be satisfied. Peer interaction was more effective on mental state talk with lower individual levels and productive interactions, particularly in terms of capacity to regulate the interactions. When children were able to focus on the interaction, as well as the product, they were also exposed to each other’s reasoning behind their viewpoint. This level of intersubjectivity, in turn, allowed them to take more in consideration the contribution of mental states to the narrative.

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“…Mental state talk [37] and narrative competence [38,39] develop during infancy and early childhood. Although children reach advance level in both construct once in primary school, also at the kindergarten level children are able to understand narratives through their mental state talk [25], as a result of the high rates of mental state terms included in children's books [40], as well as joint reading practices [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental State Talk Structure in Children’s Narratives: A Cluster Analysis

Pinto

Primi

Tarchi

et al. 2017

Child Development Research

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This study analysed children's Theory of Mind (ToM) as assessed by mental state talk in oral narratives. We hypothesized that the children's mental state talk in narratives has an underlying structure, with specific terms organized in clusters. Ninety-eight children attending the last year of kindergarten were asked to tell a story twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Mental state talk was analysed by identifying terms and expressions referring to perceptual, physiological, emotional, willingness, cognitive, moral, and sociorelational states. The cluster analysis showed that children's mental state talk is organized in two main clusters: perceptual states and affective states. Results from the study confirm the feasibility of narratives as an outlet to inquire mental state talk and offer a more fine-grained analysis of mental state talk structure.

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Development in narrative competences from oral to written stories in five- to seven-year-old children

Cited by 55 publications

References 42 publications

The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

Peer Interaction Does Not Always Improve Children’s Mental State Talk Production in Oral Narratives. A Study in 6- to 10-Year-Old Italian Children

Mental State Talk Structure in Children’s Narratives: A Cluster Analysis

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