Narrative Retell Assessment Using "Frog" Stories: A Practice-Based Research Speech-Language Pathology Partnership...

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Narrative abilities are crucial for everyday communication, academic success, and social interactions.
• Narrative assessments are vital for identifying children with language delays, prompting their inclusion in routine clinical evaluations.
• Developing effective and clinically relevant assessment tools is essential for accurate progress monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the equivalency of two wordless picture books for a narrative retell assessment tool.
• To determine the suitability of the narrative retell tool for monitoring progress in young children.
• To develop local norms for the narrative assessment tool through a practice-based research partnership.

Main Methods:

• A practice-based research partnership between school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and researchers.
• 263 students in kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 participated.
• Students retold one of two wordless picture books and answered comprehension questions.

Main Results:

• Initially, a significant story effect was observed for main and supporting events recalled, but not total events.
• Total events recalled were predicted by grade level only.
• After reclassifying potentially misclassified events, no significant story effect was found for main or supporting events recalled, supporting story equivalency.

Conclusions:

• The evaluated narrative retell assessment tool is appropriate for progress monitoring in school-aged children.
• Collaborative practice-based research effectively adapted assessment tools to meet clinical needs.
• Local normative data were successfully developed for the narrative assessment.