RESUMEN
Resumen Este estudio caracteriza y compara las habilidades narrativas y el vocabulario receptivo de 54 preescolares montevideanos de nivel socioeconómico medio (NSM) y bajo (NSB). Los niños realizaron tareas de vocabulario receptivo, producción narrativa (en dos condiciones: manipulando títeres al contar la historia y sin manipularlos), y comprensión narrativa (recuento oral y preguntas posteriores a la reconstrucción). Las narrativas fueron transcritas, codificadas y analizadas en términos de super y macroestructura siguiendo la gramática de historias de Stein y Glenn (1979) (coherencia) y de microestructura (productividad y complejidad). Los niños de ambos grupos tuvieron un desempeño acorde a su edad en comprensión y producción narrativa, a pesar de que el grupo de NSM tuvo un mejor desempeño en vocabulario receptivo. Hubo diferencias en comprensión (cantidad de episodios recuperados y en la respuesta a preguntas) que favorecieron al NSM, pero no en la cantidad de categorías recuperadas ni en la extensión y complejidad del recuento. Para producción narrativa no hubo diferencias en secuencia narrativa, ni en la cantidad de episodios completos en ninguna de las condiciones, pero sí en cuanto a la complejidad sintáctica en la condición sin títeres. Los resultados muestran una relación compleja entre vocabulario y habilidades narrativas, dado que diferencias importantes en vocabulario no se reflejaron de manera homogénea en el desempeño narrativo. Estos resultados aportan a los debates actuales sobre el papel del vocabulario en el desarrollo de habilidades narrativas, así como a pensar la validez ecológica de las evaluaciones en el desarrollo cognitivo y lingüístico.
Abstract Narrative abilities are an important part of communication, academic success, and healthy relationships. These abilities involve complex language and cognitive skills, such as precise vocabulary, control of the coherence markers, relations of cause-effect, and planning. They are also relevant during the elementary school years and interact with the socio-emotional skills necessary to understand different points of view. Oral narrative production develops dramatically from 3 to 5 years of age and is a key factor in a child's ability to communicate about the world. During this period narratives are a product of increasing linguistic sophistication over the preschool period and there is a complex relationship between early narratives and language proficiency. So far, most research about this topic has been pursued in populations other than Latin American preschoolers. At the same time, a considerably lesser number of studies about narrative abilities development have been carried out comparing typically developing children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. To our knowledge, there are no studies in Uruguay that assess the narrative abilities development in typically developing preschool children who grow up in vulnerable contexts. It is therefore of the utmost relevance to produce empirical evidence for this population. For these reasons, this study aimed at characterizing and comparing narrative abilities and receptive vocabulary in a group of a total of 54 Uruguayan preschoolers from different socioeconomic backgrounds (middle and low socioeconomic status, SES). Children were assessed in receptive vocabulary and narrative abilities across two task conditions: (1) narrative comprehension through a story retelling task which included some final questions about the story; (2) narrative production elicited from a set of thematically related puppets. The examiner gives a child a puppet set and asks him/her to elaborate a narrative using them. After that, puppets are removed and the child is asked to retell the story without puppets. Children's oral productions were video-taped and then transcribed and categorized using the ELAN software (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 2019). The verbal information was categorized according to Stein and Glenn's (1979) story grammar and considering the microstructural aspects (productivity and complexity). Analyses showed that both groups performed according to their stage of development in both narrative task conditions. With regards to the narrative comprehension task, no differences in the number of recovered categories, extension, or narrative complexity were observed. Concerning the narrative production task, there were no differences between the groups in narrative sequences, nor in the number of completed episodes in conditions neither with puppets nor without puppets. Results showed that children who grow up in poverty perform more poorly than their peers from middle-income families in receptive vocabulary, in the number of recovered episodes, ask-answer items of narrative comprehension tasks. Moreover, concerning the microstructural parameters analyses showed that children from middle socioeconomic backgrounds scored better in syntactic complexity in the without puppets condition. No differences between the groups were observed in syntactic complexity in the puppets condition. Taken together these results indicate a complex link between vocabulary and narrative abilities. It is worth noting that important differences in vocabulary did not reflect in the children's narrative performance. These findings are also relevant as a contribution to an ongoing debate about the role of vocabulary in the development of narrative abilities. Furthermore, these results could inform the discussion about the ecological validity of the test of cognitive and linguistic development. Finally, to provide some additional evidence to Uruguayan Spanish language about the relationships between oral language and cognitive development allows to carry out early interventions before formal schooling sets children for success in school and life.
RESUMEN
Antecedentes y objetivos: Las habilidades implicadas en la producción narrativa constituyen un buen indicador de la competencia lingüística infantil y permiten predecir el futuro desarrollo del lenguaje. Resulta importante, dentro del ámbito logopédico y pedagógico, contar con instrumentos de evaluación específicos en esta área; sin embargo, existen pocos sistemas de evaluación que valoren el desarrollo de la narración en español. Esta investigación tiene un doble objetivo: el primero es adaptar al español el Test of Narrative Production, y el segundo es describir el desarrollo de las habilidades narrativas a partir de la aplicación del test adaptado. Método: Un total de 146 niños de 4 a 11 años con lengua materna española fueron evaluados mediante la adaptación al español del Test of Narrative Production, valorándose las habilidades narrativas a nivel de macroestructura y microestructura. Resultados: Se observó una correlación fuerte y significativa entre la edad y el desempeño narrativo a nivel macroestructural y microestructural. No obstante, si bien se observó una estabilización a los 9 años del desarrollo de ambos niveles, en el nivel microestructural se manifestó una evolución de los mecanismos de cohesión hasta los 11 años. Conclusiones: La prueba se revela como un sistema de evaluación válido del desarrollo narrativo en español. Los resultados coinciden con investigaciones en niños angloparlantes, donde se ha demostrado que estos adquieren un nivel de desempeño narrativo similar al de los adultos a los 9 años en cuanto al nivel macroestructural, pero que continúan desarrollando y complejizando el nivel microestructural hasta la adolescencia.(AU)
Background and objectives: The skills involved in narrative production are a good indicator of children's current language competence and predict future linguistic performance. It is important in speech and language therapy and education research to have specific assessments of developing narrative abilities. To date, however, there are few tests that assess the development of narratives in Spanish. This research has a double objective: first, to adapt the Test of Narrative Production to Spanish; and second, to describe the development of narrative skills using the adapted test. Method: A total of 146 children aged 4-11 years with Spanish as their mother tongue were evaluated by the Test of Narrative Production adapted to Spanish, and were assessed for their narrative skills at the level of both macrostructure and microstructure. Results: A strong significant correlation between age and narrative performance was observed at the macrostructural and microstructural levels. However, although both levels showed a stabilization at age 9 years, at the microstructural level cohesive devices continued developing until age 11 years. Conclusions: The test can be considered a valid evaluation of narrative development in Spanish. The results are consistent with research in English-speaking children, where it has been shown that they acquire a similar level of narrative performance to that of adults at 9 years of age at the macrostructural level, but they continue to develop and refine the microstructural level until adolescence.(AU)
Asunto(s)
Humanos , Niño , Narración , Lenguaje Infantil , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Trastornos del Lenguaje , España , Logopedia , AudiologíaRESUMEN
Con la participación de niños de sectores medios de Argentina, se presenta un estudio longitudinal acerca de la construcción del mundo ficcional y de la trama narrativa en situaciones de juego. Investigaciones previas evidenciaron las relaciones entre el juego y las habilidades narrativas. Son escasos los estudios que analizaron los recursos que contribuyen a elaborar el mundo ficcional del juego, así como las características de su trama narrativa. Se analizaron 60 situaciones de juego simbólico en las que participaron 12 niños y sus madres cuando los primeros tenían 2.6 y 3.6 años. Los participantes emplean diversos recursos para la construcción del mundo ficcional. Se observaron variaciones longitudinales respecto del uso de enunciados metalúdicos, el tipo de mundo ficcional y la complejidad de la trama narrativa del juego.
The paper presents a longitudinal analysis of the construction of the fictional world and the narrative discourse in play situations registered in the homes of middle-income children from Argentina. Previous research has shown the relations between play and narrative abilities. There are few studies focused on the characteristics of the interaction and the language that contribute to the narrative represented in the play. Sixty play situations were analyzed and registered in the homes of 12 children when they were 2.6 and 3.6 years old respectively. The participants used several resources for the construction of the fictional world of the play. Longitudinal variations were observed regarding the use of metaplay utterances, the types of fictional worlds constructed and the complexity of the narratives.
RESUMEN
El presente estudio examinó las narraciones escritas, así como la influencia de las variables lingüísticas sobre la competencia narrativa de los niños con Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje (TEL). Veinticinco niños con TEL y 25 niños con desarrollo normal del lenguaje, equilibrados en edad e inteligencia, realizaron una tarea de narración escrita. Los resultados indican que ambos grupos difieren en la producción de narraciones. Los niños con TEL no solo escribieron historias más cortas, sino también de menor organización y coherencia. Además cometieron significativamente más errores de ortografía natural y de sintaxis. Los análisis de regresión jerárquica mostraron que diferentes medidas lingüísticas -memoria secuencial auditiva, comprensión auditiva y expresión verbal- tienen un peso predictivo de la competencia narrativa.
The present study examined the written narrations and the influence of linguistic measures on narrative competence of children with specific language impairment (SLI). A narration task was used to assess narrative abilities in 25 children with SLI and 25 normally developing children, matched on age and IQ. Results indicated that the two groups did differ in the production of narratives. The children with SLI provided short narratives, poorly organized and less cohesive. Also, writings were characterized by more syntax errors and had high proportion of phonologically inaccurate spelling errors. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that different linguistic measures - auditory comprehension, verbal fluency and sequential auditory memory - played a predictive role in narrative competence.
