Efficacy of narrative intervention on Chinese-speaking school-age children with and without developmental language disorder

Purposes

The effect of intervening on narrative skills in Chinese-speaking school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is underexplored.

Methods

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of narrative intervention on written narratives of Chinese children with and without DLD and to explore the potential differences in response to the intervention between the two groups of children. Children with DLD (N = 22; M age = 9.28, SD = 1.00) and controls (N = 22; M age = 9.82, SD = 1.09) were measured on written narratives in pre- and post-tests. Repeated measures analysis of variance was performed with test time (two levels: pre vs. post) as a within-subject factor and language group as a between-subject factor (two levels: children with DLD and control) on the micro and macro indices of written narratives.

Results

Analysis of the written narratives revealed that the intervention had an impact on story grammar, story pattern, total T-units, use of mental state words, and conjunctions. Differences between language groups were observed in story pattern, mean length of T-unit, and causal density.

Discussion

The results confirm the effectiveness of narrative intervention in enhancing the narrative skills of Chinese-speaking school-age children with and without DLD. Moreover, the results shed light on the core deficits experienced by Chinese-speaking school-age children with DLD.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on this subject

• By implementing narrative intervention, teachers or speech-language pathologists can efficiently impart a wide range of academically and socially significant language skills to a diverse group of children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Despite the cultural variations and linguistic diversity, it is reasonable to teach mainstream narrative structure to children. The published narrative-based intervention programs like Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL) have been proven effective in improving narrative abilities in different modes, including the one-to-one basis, small group, and classroom-based instruction. Moreover, SKILL can promote the narrative abilities of typically developing children, children with DLD, and children with autism.

What this study adds

• The present study is one of the initial endeavours to adapt the framework of SKILL in a narrative intervention program on a cohort of Mandarin-speaking children and seeks to examine the impact of narrative intervention. The findings in the present study should provide an effective model of intervention to facilitate the development of narrative skills for Chinese-speaking school-age children. Developing narrative intervention programs for Mandarin-speaking school-age children with and without DLD makes important clinical contributions.

What are the clinical implications of this study?

• The findings in the present study should provide an effective model of intervention to facilitate the development of narrative skills for Chinese-speaking school-age children. children with DLD lagged significantly in the intervention on narrative skills indexed by story pattern, mean length of T-unit, and clausal density, indicating children with DLD have pronounced difficulties in these indices. These narrative indices could be potential linguistic markers that can be used to discriminate children at risk of DLD.