The Ability of Five Children with Language Impairment to Describe Mental State in Story Narratives in Spontaneous and Prompted Conditions: Does It Help to Ask?

• Main Author: Asai, Naomi
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2017
• Subjects: language impairment; narrative; story retells; story grammar; social communication intervention; school-age children; Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument; Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6887; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7887&context=etd

Numerous studies have shown that children identified with Language Impairment (LI) have marked difficulty with producing story narratives compared to their typically developing peers. One particular area of weakness seen in the narratives of children with LI is their ability to incorporate internal states, specifically internal response, internal plan, and emotion words. The current study examines five children with LI and their descriptions of mental and emotional states of characters in story narratives under spontaneous and prompted conditions. Participants produced story retells based on a series of wordless picture books taken from the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. Story retells were elicited twice for each story, once with and once without verbal prompts. As expected, children produced more internal state story elements in response to prompts. As children produced more of these elements, however, their accuracy decreased, and the states they reported did not always reflect the story content. The children with LI showed limited understanding and ability to interpret the reactions, motivations, and emotions that characters experienced. However, verbal prompts did reveal children's current abilities and understanding of internal states.