Language samples using three story elicitation tasks and maturation effects

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Special Education

Background:

• Children with learning disabilities (LD) often exhibit challenges in spoken language development.
• Storytelling is a complex linguistic task that can reveal subtle language deficits.
• Understanding the impact of different story elicitation methods is crucial for accurate language assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the spoken language performance of elementary students with LD across three distinct story generation tasks.
• To analyze changes in discourse variables over a one-year period in students with LD.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of different story-elicitation methods for language sampling in this population.

Main Methods:

• Twenty elementary students with verified learning disabilities participated.
• Spoken language skills were assessed using a discourse analysis procedure applied to story retellings.
• Three story tasks were employed: picture-based, memory-based, and game-based story generation, assessed over one year.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant main effects were found for task on 9 out of 17 discourse variables.
• A significant main effect for time was observed, indicating changes over the one-year period.
• Stories generated from memory were longer but contained more and varied errors compared to picture or game-based stories.

Conclusions:

• The type of story generation task significantly influences the discourse produced by students with LD.
• Memory-based story generation may elicit more linguistic output but also highlights more error patterns.
• Findings have implications for selecting appropriate story tasks in language sampling for students with learning disabilities.