Examining the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ knowledge of storybook events

Abstract

Planning intervention for narrative comprehension deficits requires a thorough understanding of a child’s skill in all component domains. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ event knowledge, an important predictor of story comprehension. Thirty-eight typically developing children (12 males; 26 females) between the ages of 30–59 months ( M = 42.05 SD = 7.62) completed three measures – verbal account, enactment, picture-sequencing – that tapped their knowledge of two different events before listening to stories based on each of those events and completing story comprehension tasks. Scores for verbal account and enactment, but not for picture sequencing, (1) were moderately correlated with comprehension scores for the corresponding story; (2) reflected differential knowledge of the two events, though not in the expected direction; (3) were moderately correlated with one another in the case of each story. In general measures for the same event were more highly correlated with one another than with measures of the other event. Overall, results suggest that verbal account and enactment may yield information useful for clinicians planning intervention for children with narrative comprehension deficits.