Assessment of narrative skills in preschool children

Abstract Background: Narrative skills are a form of discourse that describes real or fictional events. In recent years, the study of communicative competence has extended to examining longer discourse units, including narratives in many languages. Unfortunately, few studies have been carried out to assess narrative skills in Arabic-speaking children. Objective: The aim of this study was to design an assessment protocol for narrative skills in Arabic-speaking children in order to reach a better understanding of their developmental pattern. Participants and methods: The study was carried out on 60 Arabic-speaking normal Egyptian children aged between 2 and 6 years. The children were divided into four groups according to their age. An assessment tool was designed to assess their narrative skills on three aspects, namely, story structure, language structure, and narrative productivity. Results: The results revealed significant differences between the groups in all studied aspects. Narrative skills were found to develop with age. However, the age at which narrative skills are acquired varies from one skill to the other. Conclusion: Children start to acquire narrative skills at the age of 2 years and these skills become well developed around the age of 6. Some narrative skills are acquired at an earlier age compared with others. © 2013, The Egyptian Oto - Rhino - Laryngological Society.