This work is based on previous studies showing that a short conversational intervention (SCI) focusing on the causes of the story events is effective in promoting the causal and mental content of children’s narratives. In these studies, however, not all the children improved their narratives after the SCI). The present study examined individual differences in the effectiveness of the SCI and investigated whether they were related to variation in the children’s executive function skills such as cognitive inhibition and flexibility. Eighty 6- to 8-year-old French-speaking children participated in the narrative task and executive function tasks. In the narrative task, they first told a story (NAR1) based on the Stone Story made up of five wordless pictures involving a misunderstanding between two characters; each child then participated in the SCI, and finally narrated the story a second time (NAR2). Then, the children were presented with executive function tasks. Cognitive inhibition was assessed by the Animal Stroop test, and cognitive flexibility was assessed by a three-criterion classification task and a local/global figure-matching task. Group results showed that the children expressed the misunderstanding between the characters in mental terms significantly more in their second than in their first narratives. Results also showed individual variation in the post-SCI improvements and indicated a significant positive relation between large improvements in the children’s post-SCI narrative and their inhibitory control skills. No significant relations were found in this study between large improvements and the two cognitive flexibility measures. These results suggest that narrative-promoting interventions should closely consider individual differences in the effectiveness of their procedures and envisage working not only on promoting narrative content but also on the skills needed to benefit from the interventions.
Aksu-KoçA.TekdemirG. (2004). Interplay between narrativity and mindreading: A comparison between Turkish and English. In S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narratives: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 307–327). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2.
BambergM. (1994). Development of linguistic forms: German. In BermanR. A.SlobinD. I (Eds.), Relating events in narrative. Vol. 2: A crosslinguistic developmental study (pp. 189–238). Erlbaum.
3.
BambergM.Damrad-FryeR. (1991). On the ability to provide evaluative comments: Further explorations of children’s narrative competencies. Journal of Child Language, 18(3), 689–710.
4.
BermanR. A. (2004). The role of context in developing narrative abilities. In StrömqvistS.VerhoevenL. (Eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 261–280). Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
BermanR. A. (2017). Developing construals of a narrative event sequence”. In KetrezN.KüntayA. C.Özçalışkan & A. ÖzyürekS. (Eds.), Social Environment and Cognition in Language Development: Studies in Honor of Ayhan Aksu-Koç (pp. 199–222). Trends in Language Acquisition (TiLAR series). John Benjamins.
6.
BermanR. A.SlobinD. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative. A crosslinguistic developmental study. Lawrence Elbaum Associates.
7.
BestJ. R.MillerP. H.JonesL. L. (2009). Executive functions after age 5: Changes and correlates. Developmental Review, 29(3), 180–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2009.05.002
8.
BrunerJ. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Harvard University Press.
9.
CooperP. J.CollinsR.SaxbyM. (1992). The power of story. MacMillan.
10.
CreminT.FlewittR.MardellB.SwannJ. (Eds.). (2016). Storytelling in early childhood: Enriching language, literacy and classroom culture. Taylor & Francis.
FredricksonB. L.BraniganC. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19(3), 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930441000238
13.
FriedmanN. P.MiyakeA. (2017). Unity and diversity of executive functions: Individual differences as a window on cognitive structure. Cortex, 86, 186–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.04.023
14.
FriendM.BatesR. P. (2014). The union of narrative and executive function: Different but complementary. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 469. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00469
15.
FurnariE. (1980). Esconde-Esconde para Crianças de 3 a 5 años. [Hide-and-seek for children aged 3 to 5 years]. Atica.
16.
GamannossiB. A.PintoG. (2014). Theory of mind and language of mind in narratives: Developmental trends from kindergarten to primary school. First Language, 34(3), 262–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723714535875
17.
GaronN.BrysonS. E.SmithI. M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 31–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.31
18.
GerstadtC. L.HongY. J.DiamondA. (1994). The relationship between cognition and action: Performance of children 312–7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test. Cognition, 53(2), 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90068-X
19.
GriffinT. M.HemphillL.CampL.WolfD. P. (2004). Oral discourse in the preschool years and later literacy skills. First Language, 24(2), 123–147. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0142723704042369
20.
HausendorfH.QuasthoffU. M. (1992). Children’s storytelling in adult–child interaction: Three dimensions in narrative development. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 2(3), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.2.3.07chi
21.
JohnsonM. H. (1990). Cortical maturation and the development of visual attention in early infancy. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2(2), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.1990.2.2.81
22.
JonesL.RothbartM.PosnerM. (2003). Development of executive attention in preschool children. Developmental Science, 61, 498–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7687.00307
23.
KimchiR.PalmerS. E. (1982). Form and texture in hierarchically constructed patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 8(4), 521–535. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.8.4.521
24.
KüntayA. C.NakamuraK. (2004). Linguistic strategies serving evaluative functions 1: A comparison between Japanese and Turkish narratives. In StrömqvistS.VerhoevenL. (Eds.), Relating events in narratives: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 329–358). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
25.
LabovW. (1972). Language in the inner city. University of Pennsylvania Press.
26.
LeverR.SénéchalM. (2011). Discussing stories: On how a dialogic reading intervention improves kindergartners’ oral narrative construction. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.07.002
27.
MallanK. M. (1991). Children as storytellers. Primary English Teaching Association.
28.
MayerM. (1969). Frog, where are you?. Dial Press.
29.
MiyakeA.FriedmanN. P.EmersonM. J.WitzkiA. H.HowerterA.WagerT. D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex ‘frontal lobe’ tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41(1), 49–100. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1999.0734
30.
NelsonK. E.KhanK. S. (2019). New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents. In VenezianoE.NicolopoulouN. (Eds.), Narrative, literacy and other skills: Studies in intervention (pp. 173–200). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.25.09nel
31.
NicolopoulouA. (2019). Using a storytelling/story-acting practice to promote narrative and other decontextualized language skills in disadvantaged children. In VenezianoE.NicolopoulouN. (Eds.), Narrative, literacy and other skills: Studies in intervention (pp. 263–284). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.25.13nic
32.
PeñaE. D.GillamR. B.MalekM.Ruiz-FelterR.ResendizM.FiestasC.SabelT. (2006). Dynamic assessment of school-age children’s narrative ability: An experimental investigation of classification accuracy. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49(5), 1037–1057. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2006/074)
33.
Perron-BorelliM. (1996). Échelles différentielles d’efficiences intellectuelles – forme révisée. [Differential scales for intellectual efficiency – revised form]. EAP.
34.
PescoD.GagnéA. (2017). Scaffolding narrative skills: A meta-analysis of Instruction in early childhood settings. Early Education and Development, 28(7), 773–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.1060800
35.
PetersonC. C. (1990). The who, when and where of early narratives. Journal of Child Language, 17, 433–455.
36.
PoirelN.SimonG.CassottiM.LerouxG.PercheyG.LanoëC.LubinA.TurbelinM.-R.RossiS.PineauA.HoudéO. (2011). The shift from local to global visual processing in 6-year-old children is associated with grey matter loss. PLOS ONE, 6(6), Article e20879. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020879
37.
QuinnP. C.EimasP. D. (1996). Perceptual cues that permit categorical differentiation of animal species by infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 63, 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1996.0047
38.
ReeseE.SuggateS.LongJ.SchaughencyE. (2010). Children’s oral narrative and reading skills in the first 3 years of reading instruction. Reading and Writing, 23(6), 627–644. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9175-9
39.
SilvaM.CainK. (2019). The use of questions to scaffold narrative coherence and cohesion. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12129
40.
SilvaM.StrasserK.CainK. (2014). Early narrative skills in Chilean preschool: Questions scaffold the production of coherent narratives. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(2), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.002
41.
SimpsonA.RiggsK. J. (2005). Inhibitory and working memory demands of the day–night task in children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(3), 471–486. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151005X28712
42.
SnowC. E.BurnsM. S.GriffinP. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. National Academy Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.10011
43.
SteinN. L. (1988). The development of children’s storytelling skill. In FranklinM. B.Berten GlaserS. (Eds.), Child language: A book of readings (pp. 282–289). Oxford University Press.
44.
StrömqvistS. E.VerhoevenL. E. (2004). Relating events in narrative, Volume 2: Typological and contextual perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum.
45.
VenezianoE. (2016). The development of narrative discourse in French by 5 to 10 years old children: Some insights from a conversational interaction method. In PereraJ.ApariciM.RosadoE.SalasN. (Eds.), Written and spoken language development across the lifespan: Essays in honour of Liliana Tolchinsky. Literacy studies series (pp. 141–160). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21136-7_10
46.
VenezianoE. (2017). Talking about the nonliteral: Internal states and explanations in child-constructed narratives. Psychology of Language and Communication, 21(1), 134–151. https://doi.org/10.1515/plc-2017-0007
47.
VenezianoE. (2019). Conversationally and monologically-produced narratives: A complex story of horizontal décalages. Psychology of Language and Communication, 23(1), 81–104.
48.
VenezianoE.BartoliE. (2018). Children’s ability to improve their narratives: A preliminary study of the relation to Executive Function abilities. In Rosell-ClariV.Cervera CrespoT.Hernández-SacristánC. (Eds.), Language and executive functioning: A multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 47–76). Tirant Lo Blanch. [In Spanish]
49.
VenezianoE.HudelotC. (2006). Etats internes, fausse croyance et explications dans les récits: effets de l’étayage chez les enfants de 4 à 12 ans. [Internal statesm false belief and explanations in narratives: Effects of scaffolding in 4-to 12-year-old children]. Langage et l’Homme, 41(2), 119–140.
50.
VenezianoE.HudelotC. (2009). Explaining events in narratives: The impact of scaffolding in 4 to 12 old-year children. Psychology of Language and Communication, 13(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10057-009-0001-X
51.
VenezianoE.PlumetM. H. (2019). Promoting narratives through a short conversational intervention in typically developing and high-functioning children with ASD. In VenezianoE.NicolopoulouN. (Eds.), Narrative, literacy and other skills: Studies in intervention (pp. 285–312). John Benjamins
52.
VenezianoE.AlbertL.MartinS. (2009). Learning to tell a story of false belief: A study of French-speaking children. In GuoJ.LievenE.BudwigN.Ervin-TrippS.NakamuraK.ÖzçaliskanS. (Eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin (pp. 277–289). Psychology Press.
53.
VenezianoE.Le NormandM. T.PlumetM. H.Elie-DeschampsJ. (2020). Promoting narrative skills in 5-to 8-year-old French-speaking children: The effects of a short conversational intervention. First Language, 40(3), 225–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723720901614
54.
WrightI.WatermanM.PrescottH.Murdoch-EatonD. (2003). A new Stroop-like measure of inhibitory function development: Typical developmental trends. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(4), 561–575. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00145
55.
ZelazoP. D. (2006). The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS): A method of assessing executive function in children. Nature Protocols, 1(1), 297–301. https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2006.46
56.
ZevenbergenA. A.WhitehurstG. J.ZevenbergenJ. A. (2003). Effects of a shared-reading intervention on the inclusion of evaluative devices in narratives of children from low-income families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(03)00021-2
