Children's Narratives Research Articles

Investigating pausing and gesturing patterns in children with and without developmental language disorder

Abstract This study aims at observing the co-occurrence of filled (FP) and unfilled pauses (UP) and gestures in the narratives of children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Although children with DLD are known to be more “disfluent” than typically developing children (TD), little is known about the role of pauses in children’s speech and their interaction with gestures. 22 French-speaking children with DLD and 22 age- and gender-matched controls, between 7 and 10, recounted a cartoon excerpt. We annotated pauses and their position in utterances, and we coded gestures according to their function. Despite a similar pausing rate across groups, results show that TD children produced more utterance-beginning FPs and more mid-utterance UPs, while children with DLD produced more standalone FPs and mid-utterance UPs. Furthermore, multimodal patterns of co-occurrence, specific to pause type, emerged. While both groups had similar gesture rates and produced mostly referential gestures, TD children produced slightly more beat gestures during FPs and more self-adaptors and pragmatic gestures during UPs. Children with DLD produced more referential gestures and object-adaptors during UPs. These differences point to the temporal relationship between gestures and pauses and the multiple ways these two phenomena may interact according to the child’s profile.

Turkish Adaptation of the Test of Narrative Language for Use in Preschools

The purpose of this research is to adapt the Test of Narrative Language (TNL) to Turkish culture and to test its validity-reliability for Turkish children aged 60-72 months. The research was designed in general survey model. The sample included 240 five-year-old children attending a preschool in Konya city center in the 2019-2020 academic year. The TNL developed by Gillam and Peterson in 2004 was used to measure children's narrative skills within the scope of expressive and receptive language skills. The test includes six tasks in three formats (no picture, sequence pictures, and single picture) and two subtests (comprehension and narration). Content and construct validity analyses were performed to test the validity. Internal consistency, test-retest, split-half tests, and inter-rater consistency coefficients were calculated to determine its reliability. The results showed the Turkish adaptation of the TNL is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the narrative skills of 5-year-old Turkish children.

Pragmatic Language in Children with Down Syndrom: A Systematic Review

Abstract Background: Down syndrome (SD) is the most common genetic disorder and the easiest to identify. SD or better known as the genetic disorder trisomy, where there is an extra chromosome on chromosome 21. Objectives: Analyzing pragmatic abilities in Down Syndrome children and learning materials in writing scientific research as well as providing additional information regarding pragmatic abilities in Down Syndrome children. Methods: The research carried out is a systematic review research. This research uses data from previous research. A quantitative systematic review combines findings from various independent studies, and produces a statistical summary of those findings (Last, 2001 in Murti, 2018). Results: Down syndrome children show conditions of intellectual problems that are continuous with language problems. Where cognitive abilities are the main capital in communication. Conclusion: Semantic-pragmatic communication abilities create core impairments in the narratives of children with Down syndrome. Pragmatic difficulties and deficits in global executive function when compared with children with other typical development.. Keywords: Pragmatic Language, Dwon syndrome, Systematic review

Autism Detection in Children: Integrating Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing in Narrative Analysis.

Despite the consensus that early identification leads to better outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), recent research reveals that the average age of diagnosis in the Greek population is approximately six years. However, this age of diagnosis is delayed by an additional two years for families from lower-income or minority backgrounds. These disparities result in adverse impacts on intervention outcomes, which are further burdened by the often time-consuming and labor-intensive language assessments for children with ASD. There is a crucial need for tools that increase access to early assessment and diagnosis that will be rigorous and objective. The current study leverages the capabilities of artificial intelligence to develop a reliable and practical model for distinguishing children with ASD from typically-developing peers based on their narrative and vocabulary skills. We applied natural language processing-based extraction techniques to automatically acquire language features (narrative and vocabulary skills) from storytelling in 68 children with ASD and 52 typically-developing children, and then trained machine learning models on the children's combined narrative and expressive vocabulary data to generate behavioral targets that effectively differentiate ASD from typically-developing children. According to the findings, the model could distinguish ASD from typically-developing children, achieving an accuracy of 96%. Specifically, out of the models used, hist gradient boosting and XGBoost showed slightly superior performance compared to the decision trees and gradient boosting models, particularly regarding accuracy and F1 score. These results bode well for the deployment of machine learning technology for children with ASD, especially those with limited access to early identification services.

Indices of oral and written narratives differentiating Mandarin-speaking school-age children with and without developmental language disorder

Little evidence has been reported for narrative-related difficulties for Chinese Mandarin-speaking school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD). This study aimed to capture the indices from narratives that can differentiate Chinese children with and without DLD. Oral narrative and written narrative samples were collected from children with DLD ( Mage = 8.37, SD = 1.25; N = 26) and typically developing (TD) children ( Mage = 8.46, SD = 1.28; N = 26). The narrative samples were compared on a series of indices of narratives in both oral and written narratives. Results showed that at the macrostructure, Mandarin Chinese-speaking school-age children with DLD lagged behind TD children in story structures; at the microstructure, children with DLD had weaker performance in story productivity, lexical diversity, and syntax diversity. Moreover, less group difference was found in the written modality relative to the oral modality. The results suggest indices of story productivity, lexical diversity, and syntactic complexity could be potential linguistic markers in the assessment of school-age Mandarin-speaking children with DLD. The present findings advance our understanding of deficits in narratives for Mandarin-speaking children.

Unlocking the Voices of Children: The Evolution of Child Narrators in Anglophone Literature

ABSTRACT This research investigates the evolution of child narrators in adult Anglophone fiction, tracing their development from being marginalized figures in the pre-romantic era to significant voices in the subsequent Romantic, Victorian, and modern periods. It explores how evolving perceptions of childhood contributed to the inclusion and growth of child narrators over time, arguing that children’s capacity for providing unique insights and valuable perspectives was increasingly acknowledged and exploited by authors to delve deeper into the complexities of human nature. By examining key works and authors, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, Emma Donoghue and Mark Haddon among others, and drawing upon interdisciplinary resources from fields such as literary criticism, childhood studies, and socio-cultural history, the paper establishes a thorough examination of the changing role and portrayal of child narrators, their cultural significance, and the ways in which they help drive social, emotional, and psychological exploration in literature.

Risk and resilience in the narratives of adult children of parents with psychosis

ABSTRACT Objective Children of parents with psychosis report feeling burdened and can experience poorer physical and mental health outcomes. Understanding the experience of adult children who were raised by a parent with psychosis in terms of risk of and resilience can inform how practitioners work holistically with the whole family. Method In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with adult children raised by a parent with psychosis. During the interview, participants were invited to tell their life story and how they felt their parent’s mental health had impacted them. Data were analysed using narrative methods. A core story was created for each participant and key themes were generated. Results Four female participants took part. Lucy described the resentment she held after seeing her mum change from a working mother to someone with mental health difficulties. Salma described how her father’s mental health was ‘normal’ for her and the stigma that affected her family. Hannah and Amelia described their own experiences of psychosis as adults and the interrelationship between a parent and child’s mental health. Discussion Multiple factors appear to influence the impact of a parent’s psychosis on children. These included the timing of the onset of psychosis, the extent of their exposure to the acute positive symptoms of psychosis, and the presence of a second parent who did not experience serious mental health difficulties. Healthcare professionals working with parents have a unique opportunity to work holistically with the family to modify the impact of parental psychosis on children.

Language-dependent reminiscing: Bilingual mother-child autobiographical conversations differ across Thai and English

Cross-linguistic differences in narrative patterns were examined in bilingual mother-preschooler dyads. Twenty-six Thai-English bilingual mothers and their four-year-old children completed a reminiscing task where they jointly recalled autobiographical memories in response to word prompts. Bilingual mothers and children exhibited different reminiscing styles in each of their languages. Specifically, bilinguals adopted high-elaborative and child-centered styles (e.g., use of evaluative feedback) when speaking English and low-elaborative and adult-centered styles (e.g., use of directives) when speaking Thai. Additionally, positive associations between maternal and child narrative patterns in both languages suggested that mothers’ scaffolding strategies influenced children’s own emerging linguistic skills. Findings from the present study show that bilingual mothers socialize their children differently across languages. In turn, children learn to present themselves in distinct ways depending on the linguistic and social contexts. We conclude that language can cue culture-specific communicative and behavioral norms as early as preschool.

Parody and performance: Paul Muldoon’s subversive pastoral

ABSTRACT Although a pastoral strand runs continuously throughout Muldoon’s work, he is infrequently characterised as a pastoral poet. However, ignoring the pastoral in Muldoon’s work is to ignore the very particular function his pastoral serves. Muldoon’s often overlooked pastoral poems not only perform what Oona Frawley has called the “necessarily hybrid” function of memorialising landscape in a space scarred by empire, but offer simultaneous critiques of the upshot of colonialism in Ireland – namely, a commodification of culture and cultural tropes. This essay argues that Muldoon’s pastoral poems rely on subversive performances of “stock Irish” characters, particularly those of child narrators or father figure characters, in order to both push back against and, sometimes, celebrate those expected cultural tropes. These pastoral poems, spanning decades of Muldoon’s career, all work in remarkably similar ways, relying on this narrative “voice throwing,” as Muldoon himself has described it, in order to engage in both politics and play.

Is Referent Reintroduction More Vulnerable to Crosslinguistic Influence? An Analysis of Referential Choice among Japanese–English Bilingual Children

This study aims to examine whether a crosslinguistic influence (CLI) is exerted on the referring expressions of the spoken narratives of Japanese–English bilingual children in different discourse contexts. Thirteen early bilingual (school-age) children separately presented Japanese and English narratives for a wordless picture book and a speechless video clip. Further, seven Japanese and nine English monolingual children participated as controls. The linguistic devices that the children adopted to introduce, reintroduce, and maintain the topic were compared with those of their monolingual controls to detect any CLI. As predicted, CLI for English on Japanese was observed but not vice versa. In Japanese, bilinguals utilize significantly more noun phrases (NPs) compared with their monolingual counterparts. More crucially, this was observed only in the referent reintroduction context, indicating that only discourse contexts that require the integration of much pragmatic information may be vulnerable to English influence. Null forms are barely utilized in English narratives; thus, no influence from Japanese was observed. We present the referential choice patterns in the elicited spoken narratives of bilingual school-age children acquiring an under-researched language pair. By controlling for the discourse context, we demonstrate that CLI is more likely to manifest in the reintroduction context. These findings offer additional evidence for the interface and structural overlap hypothesis, further highlighting the criticality of considering information structure as an influencing condition.

On the Characteristics and Analysis of Children's Narratives in Memories of Peking: South Side Stories

On the Characteristics and Analysis of Children's Narratives in Memories of Peking: South Side Stories

The interactive roles of narrative processing and emotion negativity/lability in relation to autonomic coordination.

Emotion regulation (ER) is a multifaceted construct, involving behavioral, cognitive, and physiological processes. Although autonomic coordination is theorized to play a crucial role in adaptive functioning, few studies have examined how different individual and contextual factors together may contribute to such coordination. This study examined the joint influences of narrative processing and emotional negativity/lability (N/L) traits on the coordination of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in a sample of 112 children, ages 8-12 years (Mage = 10.15 years, SD = 1.33). Children completed a stress-induction task followed by an interview about the task. Children's trait-level N/L was assessed via parent-report on the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Narrative processing was assessed and coded based on children's narrative accounts of the event (i.e., causal coherence, overall emotional tone). Indexes of sympathetic (skin conductance response, SCR) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) functioning were derived from physiological data obtained during the interview. Results revealed that children's trait-level N/L and narrative processing of the stressful event interacted to predict the RSA-SCR correlation. Specifically, children who were high on either N/L or narrative causal coherence, but not both, demonstrated significant RSA-SCR correlation. Similarly, children with high N/L and negative-to-neutral narratives, as well as those with low N/L and neutral-to-positive narratives, exhibited significant RSA-SCR correlation. This work provides empirical evidence that narrative processing and trait N/L, together with RSA-SCR correlation, work in tandem to regulate emotional arousal.

The use of differing verb types in the oral narratives of school-age children

ABSTRACT The aim of this project was to examine age-related use of action, metacognitive, and metalinguistic verbs because factors related to verb transparency are thought to impact word learning. Performance on fictional, oral narratives elicited using a single-episode picture was evaluated for 84 children with typical language (TL) and 38 age-matched children with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) ranging in age from 5;1 to 14;4 years of age. Narrative samples were transcribed and coded for occurrences of action verbs (AV), metacognitive verbs (MCV), and metalinguistic verbs (MLV). The total number of verbs used and the number of different verbs produced in each category were examined across ages, as was the difference in verb usage patterns across language ability groups. A statistically significant increase in the overall use of action, MCV, and MLV with age was observed. TL children used a wider variety of each verb type as compared to those with DLD. Age-related progression for verb use was observed in the fictional narrative generation task by both groups of children. However, despite similar rates of total verb use, children with DLD produced fewer different verbs in the three categories. These findings indicate the total number of verbs used is similar in children with TL and DLD, but there is a difference in the number of different verbs used in functional tasks such as narratives for children with DLD. These results also indicate a need for ongoing examination of the factors not only impacting verb acquisition but also use in communication tasks.

The Effect of Background Noise, Bilingualism, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Functioning on Primary School Children's Narrative Listening Comprehension.

This study focuses on 7- to 9-year-old children attending primary school in Swedish areas of low socioeconomic status, where most children's school language is their second language. The aim was to better understand what factors influence these children's narrative listening comprehension both in an ideal listening condition (in quiet) and for the primary school classroom, a typical listening condition (with multitalker babble noise). A total of 86 typically developing 7- to 9-year-olds performed a narrative listening comprehension test (Lyssna, Förstå och Minnas [LFM]; English translation: Listen, Comprehend, and Remember) in two listening conditions: quiet and multitalker babble noise. They also performed the crosslinguistic nonword repetition test and a digit span backwards (DSB) test. A predictive statistical model including these factors, the children's degree of school language exposure, parental education level, and age was derived. Listening condition had the strongest predictive value for LFM performance, followed by school language exposure and nonword repetition accuracy. Parental education level was also a significant predictor. There was a significant three-way interaction effect between listening condition, age, and DSB performance. Multitalker babble noise has a negative effect on children's narrative listening comprehension. The effect of multitalker babble noise could be explained by age differences in the ability to allocate working memory capacity during the narrative listening comprehension task, suggesting that younger children may be more vulnerable for missing information when listening in background noise than their older peers. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25209248.

Dynamic assessment of narratives: Case studies of bilingual Filipino kindergarteners with language difficulties

The goal of the present study was to investigate the performance of four Filipino–English bilingual kindergarteners with language difficulties on a dynamic assessment of English narratives. Using a multiple case-study design, we examined the children's modifiability by detailing their responsiveness, level of skill transfer, and the amount and type of effort the examiner expended during two mediation sessions. We also assessed the children's narrative skills using the Test of Narrative Language—second edition (TNL-2). During mediation, similarities among the four children included difficulty answering wh-questions, little transfer of the newly learned skills, frequent focus on the story problem, and the need for continual prompting and repetition. However, the children showed individual learning styles, behavior when learning, and learning potential, prompting the examiner to apply different strategies to support their individual abilities. Gains on the TNL-2 were also negligible, consistent with the modifiability findings, apart from one child who showed improvement in comprehension scores. The case studies provide novel information regarding the narrative skills of Filipino bilingual children with language difficulties, an under-researched population. They can help guide expectations of such children during a dynamic assessment and suggest mediation strategies that clinicians could incorporate into their practice with other groups of bilingual children.

Listening to children's voices: reflections on methods, practices and ethics in researching with children using zoom video interviews

PurposeThe purpose of this research was to reflect on the enablers, challenges and ethical considerations in conducting qualitative research with young children using online methods. The aim was to suggest recommended practices to be put in place for researchers conducting online focus groups and interviews with young children.Design/methodology/approachThis research article explores the use of Zoom video conferencing as a tool to collect qualitative data with young children in Singapore, as an alternative to face-to-face interviews. Taking a child-centred participatory approach, children shared their perspectives of their experiences of child agency in school and at home through their drawings, pictures and dialogue in online group interviews. Schon's model of reflective practice was used to guide the researchers' process of reflections during the research project.FindingsScreen sharing and real-time nature of interactions of Zoom video conferencing enabled building of rapport and children's narratives to be developed while group size and the effect of parental influence provided challenges and ethical issues that needed to be addressed in the research process. Researcher withitness emerged as an essential quality in successful engagement of children in an online focus group discussion.Research limitations/implicationsOnline video conferencing platforms like Zoom provide a powerful alternative tool for participatory research with children. It challenges researchers to share control of the interactions and data collection process with children. However, parental interference and effect on data may present itself as a research limitation if not navigated well.Practical implicationsGroup size of the focus group has an impact on children's engagement levels and wait time for their turn to speak during group interviews. While parents' presence during the online interview ensured child safety and a comforting presence for the child, parents should also understand their role in the study to avoid interfering with the data collection process.Social implicationsThe Zoom platform resembled onsite interviews' spontaneity of exchanges which allowed the researchers to build rapport with children through small-talk and icebreaker activities. Establishing personal connections and building of trust were essential elements in ensuring children were comfortable participating in the interviews. Observing real-time behaviour and body language of children also allowed for indication of withdrawal of consent and participation by the children.Originality/valueThis research adds new insights to the emerging discussions on collecting data from children via online video platforms with suggestions of new strategies and recommendations to overcome challenges, as well as future implications and potential of using Zoom as an alternative tool for participatory research with children. This research conducted in Singapore provides an Asian context and is different from current literature on this topic, largely focused on western countries' reports.

A corpus-based developmental investigation of linguistic complexity in children's writing

Writing proficiency is associated with linguistic complexity. We used measures of linguistic complexity to investigate the development of children's narrative writing using a large corpus of short stories (N>100,000) written by children aged 5–13 in the UK. Linguistic complexity was assessed using both lexical (N = 30) and syntactic (N = 14) measures. Most measures were associated with age, with writing by older children showing greater lexical density, sophistication, and diversity than writing by younger children. Older children also used longer sentences, and longer T-units and clauses, and the density of smaller syntactic units inside larger units was also higher. Principal Component Analysis identified a number of dimensions associated with complexity, with the first two dimensions capturing nearly 50 % of variance. Lexical diversity was mainly represented on the first dimension and syntactic complexity on the second. Across the age range, there was wider variation in syntactic complexity than in lexical diversity, suggesting that syntactic development is subject to more individual differences than the ability to use a diverse set of lexical items. Our findings quantify the nature and content of children's writing through mid-childhood, and we discuss the utility of analysing children's writing using a computational, data-driven approach.

Empirical insights into traditional and AI enhanced interactive narratives based on children’s fables

Aim/purpose – The study delves into the creation and the experience of interactive children’s narratives based on poetry, examining the emerging role of artificial intelli- gence (AI) as a collaborative partner in storytelling for children. The research questions are: 1) What are the experiences of readers, specifically children’s guardians, with inter- active narratives based on children’s poetry?; 2) How do children’s guardians experience inter-active stories co-generated in real-time through conversations with artificial intelli- gence?; 3) Is it feasible to create a satisfying narrative for children from a specific set of images through the use of AI technology? Design/methodology/approach – This paper synthesizes findings from the following studies: a) Qualitative analysis of interactive narratives based on Stanisław Jachowicz’s poems, involving a comprehensive online questionnaire survey, with 80 respondents participating in the latest study; b) An evaluative study focused on real-time interactions with AI-generated interactive narratives based on Stanisław Jachowicz’s poems. This involved 12 participants who provided detailed feedback on their experience; c) An autoethnographic study exploring the creative process of generating children’s narratives from a set of images using AI. Findings – The findings from the exploratory studies suggested that interactive narra- tives based on poetry would be beneficial for education and the promotion of reading. The interactive narrative can be simply designed (simple mechanics, simple options) and nevertheless, it can evoke a positive user experience. The constructs of telepresence and player agency apply not only to the interactive narrative and the poem that serves as its foundation. The evaluation of the interactive narrative generated by ChatGPT was posi- tive, both as real-time interactive storytelling experienced by the reader with AI and as the interactive narrative created based on a set of images. In the process of generating interactive narratives during real-time interactions, ensuring safety, reliability, and trust- worthiness for children is a crucial aspect. Research implications/limitations – The research suggests that educational organiza- tions can benefit from introducing interactive narratives based on poetry into children’s curricula. Furthermore, artificial intelligence can be effectively utilized in creating such content, both in the form of traditional interactive narratives presented to children and in real-time interactions with AI. However, it is also important for organizations to develop tools for monitoring children’s safety. Originality/value/contribution – This paper sheds light on the reader’s experience with interactive narratives based on poetry and highlights the transformative impact of AI on reading and writing in children’s literature, emphasizing how significantly the roles of writers and readers have changed with the introduction of AI. The swift evolution of artificial intelligence raises concerns that vital literary participants – including authors, researchers, publishers, and readers – may not grasp the essential skills and knowledge for utilizing AI. This paper can be helpful for these groups as it provides clues on how to produce good prompts, leading to the creation of children’s narratives. Keywords: art studies, Human-Centered AI, interactive narrative, game development, user experience. JEL Classification: Z11, L86, M31.

Young children's narratives of exclusion in peer relationships in early childhood education and care

In peer culture, children develop social and moral orderings that justify exclusion of one or more peers – an area that has sparked debate among early childhood education groups. Therefore, the present study employed the idea of the power order or social and moral ordering of belonging to explore young children's narratives of social exclusion. We asked what story types can be identified in these narratives and how exclusion is reasoned in them. The data consisted of 25 narratives produced by 12 children, aged 4–6 years, via the Story Magician's Playtime method in early childhood education and care in Finland. Four story types were identified (repulsion, hierarchy, adult as mediator and conciliation), in which the moral reasoning for and conclusion of the exclusion differed. The diverse story types manifested complex negotiations, meaning-makings and diversity of emotions, in which children transcended dichotomous, black-and-white moral reasoning. Children's narratives illuminate how they negotiate social orders in situational interactions. Rules prescribed for children from adults are reproduced, modified and reinterpreted in these interactions. The narratives imparted the contradictions between preserving specific rules and members for ongoing play and the altruistic all-can-participate rule. The study highlighted the importance of addressing exclusion situations in ECEC. If social exclusion is not reflected on with children, they are left alone to solve these situations, which may cause a vicious cycle for repeatedly excluded children.

Researcher-initiated role play, stimulated recall interview, storycrafting, painting and drawing as research methods to reach children's perspectives in health sciences.

To describe the application of selected creative and participatory research methods in nursing science. Research methodology paper. Researcher-initiated role play, stimulated recall interviews, the Storycrafting method, painting and drawing. Altogether, 11 children (5-7 years old) and 12 parents participated in the research. Each small group (n = 3) acted differently during the data collection. Not every child wanted to play, draw or tell stories, but they all expressed their views through some method. Although the same themes emerged from children's narratives, they could not have been verified by just one method. Using creative and participatory methods and the principles of studies of child perspectives are applicable ways of conducting research in nursing science. Children must be treated as individuals during the research process, and they must have opportunities to use several communication methods to express their views. Understanding different ways to interact with children and hear children's views will help nurses to encounter children. In this article, we present a valid way of conducting research with children. By following our protocol, nursing research from a child perspective can be implemented. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ). The child participants were involved in choosing physical places for data collection and the usage and order of the selected methods. Both the children and the adult participants took part in interpreting the research data.