A further analysis of narrative skills of children who stutter

This study tested for differences between children who stutter (CWS) and children with normally developing communication skills (CNC) on measures of narrative complexity and cohesion use in two narrative tasks. In addition, differences in stuttering frequency produced by CWS across tasks were measured. One story retelling and one story generation were elicited from eight CWS and eight age- and gender-matched CNC peers. Results revealed no significant differences between CWS and CNC for the measures of narrative complexity or cohesion use. However, significant differences were noted in stuttering frequency. Additionally, significant differences were found between the tasks for number of words, t-units, and episodes produced, as well as referents, conjunctions, and complete cohesive ties. Findings confirm that narrative abilities of CWS are similar to those of CNC, and that a retelling task produces longer and more elaborate narrative samples than does story generation. Directions for future research are discussed.