An Exploration of the Relation between Children’s Memory and Narrative Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Early narrative development and memories skills play a key role in children’s later language and literacy skills, such that narrative coherence and length (Griffin et al., 2004), as well as recall and working memory (Fitzpatrick et al., 2012), in the preschool years predict vocabulary, reading comprehension, and overall academic success during the school years. Not surprisingly, then, research has found a relation between children’s memory and narrative abilities. For example, children who tell more coherent personal narratives and those who share more accurate retellings also exhibit higher recall abilities (Kleinknect & Beike, 2001). Similarly, children who share more coherent and developed narratives of wordless picture books exhibit greater working memory skills (Whitely & Colozzo, 2013). However, research in this area is limited and has yet to explore both recall and working memory in relation to narrative skills across the broad spectrum of narrative types. Moreover, little is known about how these relations change as children transition from early childhood classrooms to more formal schooling. The current study addresses these gaps in the research by examining the relation between children’s working memory and recall skills and their narrative coherence, complexity, and length across three narrative types. Two research questions guided the study: How are children’s recall and working memory related to the narrative coherence, complexity, and length of their personal narratives, book readings, and retellings? And how do these relations vary by children’s age?

Thirty kindergarten and first grade children participated in two 30-minute recorded Zoom sessions. During one session, children’s recall was measured using the Understanding Spoken Paragraphs subtest of the CELF-4th Edition (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) and the Story Recall subtest of the Woodcock- Muñoz Language Survey-Revised (Woodcock et al., 2005). Additionally, children’s working memory was assessed using the Head Toes Knees and Shoulders (Ponitz et al., 2008) and the Test of Memory and Learning Backward Digit Span task (Reynolds & Voress, 2008). During the other session, children were asked to engage in three narrative tasks: (a) share two personal narratives using the conversational map (Peterson & McCabe, 1984), (b) retell a prerecorded story that they listened to, (c) share the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Order of sessions was counterbalanced.

Transcription and verification of narrative data are ongoing. Coding is focused on capturing three elements of narrative coherence (Reese et al., 2011): context (i.e., orienting the narrative in time and setting), chronology (i.e., relating components along a timeline), and theme (i.e., maintaining and elaborating on topic). Narrative complexity will be classified based on Stadler and Ward’s (2005) stages of narrative development, ranging from 1 (labeling) to 5 (narrating). Very preliminary results, however, suggest a positive relation between children’s recall skills and their narrative context and chronology, particularly for kindergarteners. Findings will serve as a first step in unpacking the relation between narrative skills, recall, and working memory, all of which are important predictors of school success, and will provide a foundation on which future, more predictive explorations can be built.

Authors

• Kaitlyn Suzuki Kugler, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Adina Schick, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author