Episodic analysis of preschool children's prompt-elicited and direct-elicited narratives

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate narrative development in preschool children with the premise that action is a semiotic arena that enhances development. It was hypothesized that children would produce structurally more complex narratives in prompt elicited vs. direct elicited conditions and that this competence would increase by age. It was also hypothesized that young children would produce more scripted narratives compared to older children. Ten children from three age groups of three, four and five, produced narratives in both toy prompted elicitation and direct elicitation conditions. Children's narratives were analyzed by Stein and Glenn's story grammar. Results from analysis of variance revealed significant structural complexity increase in preschool children's prompt-elicited narratives. No significant age related change was found in children's direct elicited narratives. The results showed a non-significant trend for prompt-elicited narratives to have higher complexity structures than direct elicited narratives. There was no age related difference found in children's script productions. A qualitative analysis revealed that four year old children produced higher complexity structures in prompt-elicited narratives compared to their direct elicited narratives. It is concluded that by five years of age children possess a story schema that can function on the symbolic plane of language without the aid of objects and actions while four year olds need the scaffolding of objects and actions to express their developing capacity of using a story schema in fictitious narrations