PreSchool Language Development

Question 1

What is a narrative?

Answer 1

A series of sentences that provides information about events/experiences in an orderly sequence

Question 2

Why are narratives an important part of language development?

Answer 2

• Narrative discourse is an EMERGENT LITERACY SKILL that demonstrates the INTERRELATEDNESS among reading, writing, and speaking
• Important transition between ORAL and LITERATE language skills
• Children will probably have trouble reading and writing if they cannot understand stories, retell stories, or make stories on their own

Question 3

Narratives require a number of skills, they are:

Answer 3

• a vocabulary that represents events and people
• Syntax (Structure of words in sentences)
• Verb morphology - signaling time of events
• Pragmatics - knowing how much information to tell the listener(s)

Question 4

At what age do narratives become a regular part of a child’s conversations?

Answer 4

3-5 years old

Question 5

True or False:
Narrative understanding is the best predictor for a child’s later academic success

Answer 5

TRUE
narratives relay on decontextualized language, something that is very important for learning

Question 6

At what age can you expect a child to be able to tell fictional narratives?

Answer 6

~7 years old

Question 7

What are the earliest narratives?

Answer 7

Personal Scripts
recalling very familiar events
ex. going to a birthday party, taking a bath

Question 8

Narratives Focus on the following areas:
(4)
How do they progress?
(examples)

Answer 8

A. Event
- recapturing past events –> describing imaginary events
B. Perspective
- telling from own pers. –> pers. of others
C. Temporal (Time) Sequence
- not being temporal –> having chronological episodes
D. Organization
- beginning middle and end –> climatic structure and conflict resolution

Question 9

By __ years old, children acquire the basic structure of stories
(knowledge of beginning, middle, and end, as well as plot and theme that ties together at the end)

Answer 9

5 years old

Question 10

At ~2 years old, what stage of narratives can you expect a child to be in?

Answer 10

“Heaps” stage
Everything is laid out in unconnected statements, with no particular order

Question 11

At ~ 2-3 years old, what stage of narrative development would a child be in?

Answer 11

“Sequences” Stage
Children’s stories begin to have arbitrary links between their story elements such as characters, setting, topic/theme/event.
No time organization
No plot

Question 12

Between the ages of ~3-4 years old, what stage of narrative development would you expect to see?

Answer 12

“Primitive” Narratives
Cause-and-effect relationships emerge
First use of inference and expression of feelings

Question 13

________ is the stage of storytelling that connects a series of events in logical, cause-and-effect relationships. The beginning of the story will bare resemblance to the end

Answer 13

Unfocused Chain Stage (4-5 years old)

Question 14

The second last narrative stage, Focused Chains, is characterized by:

Answer 14

Characters with events linking logically
Lacks a plot and a clearly defined ending
(5-6 years old)

Question 15

The final stage of narrative development is _______________ (6-7 years old)

Answer 15

True Narratives

Question 16

Decontextualized language is important to learning in school because:

Answer 16

• Almost all learning that takes place in school is decontextualized, (not happening in the present moment) and therefore must be understood

Question 17

By ______ years old, children can take a number of turns in a conversation, but it is easier to ______________

Answer 17

3 years old,
Its easier to discuss something they have initiated themselves

Question 18

General conversation rules are learned around age _____

Answer 18

4- 5

Question 19

Generally, ToM is established around ____ years old

Answer 19

4 years old

Question 20

Children have a better chance of having an advanced theory of mind if:

Answer 20

• Their caregivers talk about feelings and reasons when correcting behavior
• The children have siblings or are often around other children
• Pretend Play often
  -They Talk with others about past experiences
• They read stories