Causal coherence in the oral narratives of Spanish-speaking children

Forty-six Spanish-speaking children distributed among three age groups (4:0-4:11, 6:0-6:11, and 8:0-8:11 years) were shown a short silent film and asked to tell the investigator what happened in the movie. All narratives were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. The stories of older children contained more narrative actions and included more mental state/goal causes than those of younger children. With increasing age, children's narratives showed a decrease in the use of two-clause causal sequences, an increase in the use of three-clause causal sequences, and a decrease in the proportion of unrelated statements. The variability in the types of causal links manifested in the stories suggests that absence of certain types of interclausal connections should not be interpreted as reflecting cognitive or comprehension deficits.