The Index Of Narrative Microstructure: A Clinical Tool For Analyzing School-Age Children's Narrative Performances

Purpose: This research was conducted to develop a clinical tool-the Index of Narrative Microstructure (INMIS)-that would parsimoniously account for important microstructural aspects of narrative production for school-age children. The study provides field test age- and grade-based INMIS values to aid clinicians in making normative judgments about microstructural aspects of pupils' narrative performance. Method: Narrative samples using a single-picture elicitation context were collected from 250 children age 5-12 years and then transcribed and segmented into T-units. A T-unit consists of a single main clause and any dependent constituents. The narrative transcripts were then coded and analyzed to document a comprehensive set of microstructural indices. Results: Factor analysis indicated that narrative microstructure consisted of 2 moderately related factors. The Productivity factor primarily comprised measures of word output, lexical diversity, and T-unit output. The Complexity factor comprised measures of syntactic organization, with mean length of T-units in words and proportion of complex T-units loading most strongly. Principal components analysis was used to provide a linear combination of 8 variables to approximate the 2 factors. Formulas for calculating a student's performance on the 2 factors using 8 narrative measures are provided. Conclusions: This study provided a method for professionals to calculate INMIS scores for narrative Productivity and Complexity for comparison against field test data for age (5- to 12-year-old) or grade (kindergarten to Grade 6) groupings. INMIS scores complement other tools in evaluating a child's narrative performance specifically and language abilities more generally.Communication Sciences and Disorder

The effect of coarticulation on the role of transitions in vowel perception

The present study examines the effect of context on the use of transitions as cues to vowel perception. Thirty V₁CV₂CV₁ utterances were recorded, with V₁ being one of the three vowels /a,i,u/, and V₂ one of ten English vowels (/ i , I, el, E, ae, a,^,Ou,U,u/). After removal of the outer vowels (V₁), three sets of stimuli were created from the CV₂C parts: (1) unmodified controls (CO); (2) V₂ steady-state only (SS); and (3) transitions only (TR). Twenty subjects were asked to identify V₂. Subjects and speaker were matched for dialect and all subjects had some phonetics training. Results showed significant differences across conditions and contexts. Scores for SS stimuli, for all contexts, were as high as for CO stimuli. Performance on the TR stimuli was as good as on the other two conditions for two of the contexts. However, for the TR condition--/a/ context, performance was considerably worse than for any other combination of conditions and contexts. Possible reasons for this are discussed, and the need for testing of other vowel contexts is emphasised. It is concluded that, in some V₁CV₂CV₁ contexts, transitions can provide information about vowel identity on a level equal to steady-state alone, or to the combined information provided by both transitions and steady-states. This effect, however, is not uniform across contexts. For at least one context, transitions alone are not sufficient to cue vowel identity at a level comparable to steady-state or combined information. This lack of uniformity suggests that the role of transitions varies with the type of vowel context present, and conclusions about general usefulness await systematic testing of a number of vowel contexts.Medicine, Faculty ofAudiology and Speech Sciences, School ofGraduat

Speaking like a scientist: A multiple case study on sketch and speak intervention to improve expository discourse

Purpose This descriptive multiple case study examined the effects of a contextualized expository strategy intervention on supported and independent note-taking, verbal rehearsal, and reporting skills for three elementary students with language disorders. Method Two 9-year-old fourth grade students and one 11-year-old sixth grade student with language disorders participated. The intervention was delivered as sixteen individual 20-minute sessions across nine weeks by the school speech-language pathologist. Students learned to take written and pictographic notes from expository texts and use verbal formulation and rehearsal of individual sentences and whole reports in varied learning contexts. To explore both emergent and independent accomplishments, performance was examined in final intervention session presentations and pre/post intervention testing. Results Following the intervention, all three students effectively used notes and verbal rehearsal to prepare and present fluent, organized, accurate, confident oral reports to an audience. From pre- to post-test, the students showed a range of improvements in the quality of notes, use of verbal rehearsal, holistic quality of oral and written reporting, and strategy awareness. Conclusions Sketch and Speak shows potential as an expository intervention for students who struggle with academic language learning. The results support further examination of this intervention for supported strategy use by younger students and independent use by older students

The Index of Narrative Microstructure: A Clinical Tool for Analyzing School-Age Children\u27s Narrative Performances

Purpose: This research was conducted to develop a clinical tool-the Index of Narrative Microstructure (INMIS)-that would parsimoniously account for important microstructural aspects of narrative production for school-age children. The study provides field test age- and grade-based INMIS values to aid clinicians in making normative judgments about microstructural aspects of pupils\u27 narrative performance. Method: Narrative samples using a single-picture elicitation context were collected from 250 children age 5-12 years and then transcribed and segmented into T-units. A T-unit consists of a single main clause and any dependent constituents. The narrative transcripts were then coded and analyzed to document a comprehensive set of microstructural indices. Results: Factor analysis indicated that narrative microstructure consisted of 2 moderately related factors. The Productivity factor primarily comprised measures of word output, lexical diversity, and T-unit output. The Complexity factor comprised measures of syntactic organization, with mean length of T-units in words and proportion of complex T-units loading most strongly. Principal components analysis was used to provide a linear combination of 8 variables to approximate the 2 factors. Formulas for calculating a student\u27s performance on the 2 factors using 8 narrative measures are provided. Conclusions: This study provided a method for professionals to calculate INMIS scores for narrative Productivity and Complexity for comparison against field test data for age (5- to 12-year-old) or grade (kindergarten to Grade 6) groupings. INMIS scores complement other tools in evaluating a child\u27s narrative performance specifically and language abilities more generally

Noun Phrase Elaboration in Children\u27s Spoken Stories

Purpose: One feature of literate language, noun phrase elaboration, was examined in the oral fictional narratives of school-aged children. Method: Two narratives were elicited from 5-, 8- and 11-year-old children, 1 in response to a picture sequence and 1 in response to a single picture. Noun phrases were categorized into 4 types. Results: Simple designating noun phrases were produced by all children at age 5, simple descriptive noun phrases by all children at age 8, and noun phrases with postmodification by all children at age 11. All noun phrase types were produced by more children in object than in subject position and in the single picture than in the picture sequence context. Conclusion: There are important developmental changes in noun phrase elaboration in the elementary school years as children learn to manage narrative contexts. Even within picture tasks, variations in visual depiction can affect the use of elaborated noun phrases (ENPs), with more descriptive language more likely to occur in narratives based on a single picture fantasy context than on a realistic picture sequence context. Performance expectations for types of ENPs within these contexts are provided. These findings will be useful to school clinicians in evaluating and working on narrative language within the elementary school period