The effects of parental style on narrative production in preschoolers : an intervention study

Jesso, Beulah A. (1997) The effects of parental style on narrative production in preschoolers : an intervention study. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The overall narrative productivity of economically disadvantaged preschoolers was evaluated prior to and following intervention. Participants were twenty preschool children and their mothers, who were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group. The study consisted of a preliminary test, 12 months of intervention and a posttest. Fourteen children {7 in each group) also participated in a follow-up assessment that occurred a year after the end of intervention. All children's narratives from both the pretest and posttest were analysed for the quantity and length of propositions, unique units of information, decontextualized information, and simple and complex temporal terms. All narratives produced by the parents in both the pretest and posttest were analysed for the number of utterances, open-ended prompts, yes/no and wh-questions, and back-channelling. It was predicted that following training the intervention group would surpass the control group on all aspects of narrative productivity. Children in the intervention group showed no improvement relative to the control group in the posttest, except on a vocabulary measure, however a year later at the time of follow-up assessment intervention children produced more decontextualized descriptions of where and especially when the described events took place. Such decontextualized language has been emphasized as important for literacy acquisition.

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