Narrative group intervention in DLD: Learning to tell the plot

Abstract

The current research investigated the effectiveness of a narrative intervention method aiming to improve oral narrative ability in 8- to 10-year-old children with developmental language disorder (DLD) (n = 6). Oral narrative ability was assessed through a narrative retelling and a narrative generation task of which both the narrative microstructure and narrative macrostructure were analysed. A debating intervention was included as a control condition (n = 6). It was found that, after 10 weeks of narrative intervention, children significantly (p < .05) improved their storytelling abilities at a microstructural level: mean length of utterance; grammaticality; fluency; and complexity, as well as at a macrostructural level: the number of story grammar elements. The alternative intervention only yielded significant results on the number of story grammar elements, not on any microstructural skills. The narrative intervention is effective in targeting and improving both narrative micro- and macrostructure and is easily applicable in classrooms with DLD children.