Narrative and temporal arrangement in school-age children with typical language development and specific language impairment (SLI)

Author(s)

Ana Carolina Paiva Bento

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina (FM/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-02-25

Examining board members

Debora Maria Befi Lopes; Fernanda Dreux Miranda Fernandes; Jacy Perissinoto

• Advisor: Debora Maria Befi Lopes

Abstract

Narrative abilities may provide valuable information concerning linguistic, cognitive and social competences of children with typical language development (TLD) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The purpose of this dissertation was to characterize the temporal arrangement of pictures and the narrative abilities of school-age children with TLD and SLI. Two groups of children with age ranging between seven and 10 years participated in the study. The Control Group (CG) was composed by 60 children with TLD whereas the Research Group (RG) was composed by 20 children with SLI. A series of 15 stories represented in pictures were used to elicit the narratives. Each story was represented in four scenes. The sequences were designed and classified as mechanics, behavioral or intentional according to the relationships presented among characters. Data were transcribed and analyzed according to the discourse type (descriptive, causal and intentional). The type of picture arrangement performed by the children was also scored. The present dissertation was divided into two experiments. Results of experiment I indicate that the ability of temporal arrangement of pictures can already be observed in seven-year old children with TLD. As much as the age increased, school-age children with TLD reduced the use of the descriptive discourse and increased the use of the intentional one. Furthermore, an increase on the use of causal and intentional discourse types was observed as the complexity of the sequences provided increased. Experiment II showed no differences among the discourse types for the RG. Between groups differences regarding temporal arrangement and discourse type were observed on experiment II. Children with SLI presented less elaborated (descriptive) discourse whereas children with TLD presented more elaborated (causal) discourse. The differences observed between narratives produced by school-age children with TLD and SLI highlight the difficulties of the SLI population in the use of language, i.e. in linguistic abilities that underlies narrative. (AU)