Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment

Abstract

This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children's narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.

Narrative Skills of Monolingual and Bilingual Pre-School and Primary School Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): A Systematic Review

“…The thirteen studies under review are summarized below starting with the studies referring to the narrative skills of monolingual pre-school and primary school children with DLD/SLI. In the study of Mäkinen et al (2014), the narratives of Finnish children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are examined taking into consideration linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children's narrative abilities. The sample consisted of nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6.1 years) and nineteen typically developing age-matched children.…”

“…Two of the studies examined only the grammatical lexical and morphosyntactic accuracy and complexity of monolingual children with DLD (Zwitserlood et al, 2015;Colozzo et al, 2011;Auza et al, 2018). The rest of them examined both microstructure and macrostructure characteristics of DLD monolinguals and their TD peers (Colozzo et al, 2011;Mäkinen et al, 2014;Vandewalle et al, 2012;Duinmeijer et al, 2012). One of them examined some additional cognitive parameters such as memory and attention in children with SLI (Duinmeijer et al, 2012) and another one the pragmatic aspects of narration (Mäkinen et al, 2014).…”

“…The rest of them examined both microstructure and macrostructure characteristics of DLD monolinguals and their TD peers (Colozzo et al, 2011;Mäkinen et al, 2014;Vandewalle et al, 2012;Duinmeijer et al, 2012). One of them examined some additional cognitive parameters such as memory and attention in children with SLI (Duinmeijer et al, 2012) and another one the pragmatic aspects of narration (Mäkinen et al, 2014). Vandewalle et al (2012) revolved around the literacy skills of children with and without SLI.…”

Tyypillisesti kehittyneiden lasten ja lasten, joilla on kielellinen erityisvaikeus tai autismikirjon häiriö, suoriutuminen Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI) -kerrontatestissä

“…Tarinan uudelleen kerronta ja luominen edellyttävät myös osittain erilaisia kognitiivisia taustataitoja. Uudelleen kerronnan on todettu olevan yhteydessä työmuistiin, mutta tarinan luomisessa vastaavaa yhteyttä ei havaittu (Duinmeijer ym., 2012;Mäkinen, Loukusa & Kunnari, 2016). Sen sijaan tarinan luomisen ja tarkkaavuuden välillä on löydetty yhteys, mitä ei vastaavasti ole havaittu uudelleen kerronnassa (Duinmeijer ym., 2012).…”

Core subjects at the end of primary school: identifying and explaining relative strengths of children with specific language impairment (SLI)

“…Children with SLI tend to be poorer than TD peers on measures of story comprehension and recall (Bishop and Adams 1992 , Norbury and Bishop 2002 ) and, in narrative productions, they show deficits in topic maintenance, event sequencing and conveying implicit relations (Mäkinen et al . 2014 , Miranda et al . 1998 ).…”