The present study assessed the oral narrative abilities of normal first and third grade children. Narratives were assessed using Applebee's (1978) system for the development of story organization. The narratives were also examined for the specific components used within the stories themselves. Findings revealed different developmental levels of narrative structure and a differentiation in the specific components within the story episodes between the groups of subjects. These findings are discussed relative to the need for establishing a data base on normal children as a precursor to assessing the stories of children with language-learning problems.
AIKEN, L.R., Jr. (1972). Language factors in learning mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 42, 359–385.
2.
APPLEBEE, A.N. (1978). The Child's Concept of Story.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
BENTON, A.L. and PEARL, D. (1978). Dyslexia: An Appraisal of Current Knowledge.New York: Oxford University Press.
4.
BERNSTEIN, D. and TIEGERMAN, E. (1985). Language and Communication Disorders in Children.Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.
5.
BERRY, M.F. (1969). Language Disorders of Children: The Bases and Diagnoses.New York: Apple-ton, Century and Crofts.
6.
BOTVIN, G.J. and SUTTON-SMITH, B. (1977). The development of structural complexity in children's fantasy narratives. Developmental Psychology, 13, 377–388.
7.
GERBER, A. and BRYAN, D. (1981). Language and Learning Disabilities.Baltimore: University Park Press.
8.
GOODMAN, L.A. and KRUSKAL, W.H. (1963). Measures of association for cross classifications. III: Approximate sampling theory. Journal of American Statistical Association, 58, 310–364.
9.
HALLIDAY, M.A.K. and HASAN, R. (1976). Cohesion in English.London: Longman.
10.
JOHNSON, D.J. and MYKLEBUST, H.R. (1967). Learning Disabilities: Educational Principles and Practices.New York: Grune and Stratton.
11.
KIRK, S., MCCARTHY, J. and KIRK, W.D. (1968). The Illinois Test of Psycholinguists Ability.Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
12.
KLECAN-AKER, J. (1984). The syntax of normal and learning disabled school-age children. Paper presented at the American Speech, Language and Hearing Convention, San Francisco.
13.
KLECAN-AKER, J. and HEDRICK, D. (1985). A study of the syntactic language abilities of normal middle school children. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 16, 187–198.
14.
KLECAN-AKER, J., MCINGVALE, G. and SWANK, P. (1987). Stimulus considerations in the narratives of normal third grade children. Language and Speech, 30, 13–24.
15.
MANDLER, J. and JOHNSON, N. (1977). Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111–151.
16.
MENYUK, C. (1977). Language and Maturation.Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.
17.
ROTH, F. and SPEKMAN, N. (1986). Narrative discourse: Spontaneously generated stories of learning-disabled and normally achieving students. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 8–23.
18.
SOBOL, D.J. (1978). The Best of Encyclopedia Brown.New York: Miller-Brody Productions.
19.
STEIN, N.L. and GLENN, C.G. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In R.O. Freedle (ed.), New Directions in Discourse Processing, Vol. 2 (pp. 53–120). Norwood: Ablex.
20.
SUTTON-SMITH, B. (1986). The development of fictional narrative performances. Topics in Language Disorders, 7, 1–10.
21.
TANNEN, D. (1980). Implications of the oral/literate continuum for cross-cultural communication. Atlantic JE: Current Issues in Bilingual Education, 15–25.
22.
VAN DONGEN, R. and WESTBY, C. (1986). Building the narrative mode of thought through children's literature. Topics in Language Disorders, 7, 70–83.
23.
VAN KLEECK, A. (1984). Metalinguistic skills: Cutting across spoken and written language and problem-solving abilities, in G. Wallach and K. Butler (eds.), Language Learning Disabilities in School-Age Children (pp. 128–153). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
24.
WALLACH, G.P. (1984). Later language learning: Syntactic structures and strategies. In G. Wallach and K. Butler (eds.), Language Learning Disabilities in School-Age Children (pp. 82–102). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
25.
WALLACH, G.P. and BUTLER, K. (1984). The final word: From theory to therapy. In G. Wallach and K. Butler (eds.), Language Learning Disabilities in School-Age Children (pp. 360–364). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
26.
WESTBY, C.E. (1982). Cognitive and linguistic aspects of children's narrative development. In L. Bradford (ed.), Communication Disorders, Vol. 7, No. 1 (pp. 1–16). New York: Grune and Stratton.
27.
WESTBY, C.E. (1984). Development of narrative language abilities. In G. Wallach and K. Butler (eds), Language Learning Disabilities in School-Age Children (pp. 103–107). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
28.
WHG, E.H. (1984). Language disabilities in adolescents: A question of cognitive strategies. Topics in Language Disorders, 2, 41–58.
29.
WHG, E.H. and SEMEL, E.M. (1974). Development of comprehension of logic-grammatical sentences by grade school children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 38, 171–176.
30.
WHG, E.H. and SEMEL, E.M. (1976). Language Disabilities in Children and Adolescents.Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.
31.
WHG, E.H. and SEMEL, E.M. (1984). Language Assessment and Intervention for the Learning-Disabled.Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.
