Poster #46 - Comparing Efficacy of Narrative Comprehension Interventions for Elementary School Children With Comprehension and Attention Difficulties

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Early narrative comprehension predicts later reading achievement (e.g., Kendeou et al., 2005), but 65% and 34% of 4th graders score below respective standards for proficient and basic levels of reading comprehension, respectively (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Struggling comprehenders often lack effective strategies for approaching texts and knowledge of story structure. In particular, children who exhibit attentional difficulties have demonstrated problems identifying and using goal structures, making causal connections, drawing appropriate inferences, and identifying and recalling important story events. Early comprehension difficulties can persist or worsen with age, suggesting that interventions are important to remedy comprehension difficulties. The purpose of the current randomized controlled trials study is to evaluate and compare two evidence-based 15-lesson afterschool comprehension interventions for third and fourth grade students who show comprehension and attentional difficulties.
One intervention, Reciprocal Teaching (RT), stresses mastery and application of four comprehension strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. Teachers provide explicit instruction and modeling of strategy use. As lessons proceed, children assume increasing responsibility for leading peers in practicing strategies applied to different texts. The other intervention, Narrative Structure (NS), was designed to address comprehension problems often demonstrated by children with attentional difficulties. This intervention builds from instruction on explicit causal connections and goal-related events to cover inferring characters’ goals and implicit causal connections and using those elements to identify important events. Thus, both interventions aim to improve narrative comprehension, but by means of different specific objectives.
Participants were 151 3rd and 4th graders who exhibited difficulties with narrative comprehension and elevated symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity. Students’ schools were randomly assigned to one of the interventions. During each semester, up to 4 groups of 6 children per group were instructed at each school, with an average of 6 schools participating. Two teachers partnered to deliver the intervention to each group. Due to relatively small post-pandemic samples, only pre-pandemic data are reported here.
Children completed multi-measure pretests and posttests. For the current report, we focus on measures derived from children’s recalls of 13-minute video stories during pretest and posttest sessions. Although both interventions are designed to improve story recall, the RT intervention emphasizes summarization of stories whereas the NS intervention stresses the use of goal structure to guide story retelling. Children’s recall protocols were scored for each story event recalled and for goal-related language used.
Neither intervention resulted in significant increases from pretest to posttest in recall of events of high importance. However, children in the RT intervention, but not the NS intervention, included significantly fewer events of low importance at posttest than at pretest, consistent with RT explicit instruction to delete unimportant events from summaries. In contrast, children in the NS intervention, but not the RT intervention, included more character goals and language related to character goals at posttest than at pretest.
Thus, children demonstrated differential improvement in story recall related to objectives specific to the RT or NS intervention. Further questions will be examined concerning gains in use of strategies and story structure elements in approaching narrative comprehension.

Authors

• Elizabeth P Lorch, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Angela N Hayden, University of Kentucky

• Janice F. Almasi, University of Kentucky

• Lily Vossekuil, University of Kentucky

• Madison Baker, University of Kentucky