Comparing young children’s oral and written story retelling: the role of ideation and transcription

Figures & data

Table 1. Correlations between oral and written retell measures.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1. Oral narrative comprehension	–
2. OR No. words	.38**	–
3. WR No. words	.50**	.50**	–
4. OR C-units	.11	.87**	.27*	-
5. WR C-units	.16	.28*	.88**	.19	-
6. OR Mean length C-unit	.30**	.50**	.37**	.08	.18	-
7. WR Mean length C-unit	.12	.32*	.60**	.15	.20	.36**	-
8. OR Nouns	.28*	.82**	.39**	.77**	.26*	.32**	.21	-
9. WR Nouns	.19	.33**	.83**	.29*	.81**	.08	.37**	.43**	-
10. OR Verbs	.24*	.94**	.39**	.86**	.22	.39**	.28*	.77**	.31*	-
11. WR Verbs	.17	.31*	.85**	.20	.85**	.19	.41**	.25	.75**	.27*	-
12. OR Adjectives	.06	.56**	.04	.52**	-.01	.32**	-.01	.50**	-.06	.52**	-.01	-
13. WR Adjectives	.14	.17	.50**	.13	.51**	.16	.24	.25*	.54**	.17	.45**	.02	-
14. OR Adverbs	.09	.60**	.31**	.45**	.26*	.38**	.24	.21	.09	.46**	.25*	.11	-.01	-
15. WR Adverbs	.04	.27*	.56**	.23	.50**	.07	.31*	.12	.36**	.16	.53**	-.02	.10	.51**
16. OR Text Structure	.56**	.74**	.54**	.59**	.31*	.41**	.31*	.66**	.26*	.66**	.41**	.48**	.05	.37**
17. WR Text Structure	.55**	.50**	.85**	.25*	.65**	.42**	.46**	.31**	.65**	.36**	.69**	.18	.38**	.21
18. OR Sentence Structure	.62**	.68**	.49**	.47**	.13	.46**	.26*	.47**	.03	.59**	.21	.48**	-.05	.36**
19. WR Sentence Structure	.58**	.40**	.72**	.11	.43**	.46**	.30*	.22	.38**	.28*	.55**	.06	.46**	.22
20. OR Vocabulary	.49**	.68**	.38**	.60**	.13	.52**	.10	.59**	.04	.54**	.09	.57**	.15	.15
21. WR Vocabulary	.58**	.45**	.78**	.34**	.61**	.40**	.22	.29*	.52**	.31**	.537**	.17	.60**	.16
22. OR Omitted words	-.20	-.10	-.38**	.11	-.04	-.33**	-.44**	.08	-.04	-.08	-.22	-.05	-.14	-.13
23 WR Omitted words	-.21	-.04	.19	.45**	.28*	-.34**	-.06	-.04	.39**	-.01	.15	-.10	.06	-.05
24. OR Omitted bound morph	-.10	.31**	.01	.19	.08	-.04	-.00	.18	.09	.31**	.01	.09	.02	.24*
25. WR Omitted bound morph	-.18	.07	.09	.09	.10	-.20	.03	-.01	.17	.07	-.02	-.05	-.05	.05
26. OR Word errors	-.07	.43**	.05	.13	.17	.03	.06	.42**	.30*	.42**	.11	.16	.08	.26*
27. WR Word errors	-.19	.04	.24	.37**	.21	-.17	.17	.09	.25*	.08	.12	-.08	.09	-.09
28. WR Words spelled correctly	.44**	.45**	.90**	.20	.79**	.35**	.48**	.41**	.79**	.33**	.78**	-.01	.52**	.31**
29. WR Spelling	.54**	.45**	.75**	.50**	.49**	.33**	.33**	.33**	.54**	.28*	.57**	.05	.39**	.19
30. WR Handwriting	.48**	.37**	.64**	.13	.38**	.19	.21	.22	.40**	.23	.41**	.01	.19	.11
31. WR Punctuation	.48**	.51**	.62**	.25*	.38**	.40**	.31*	.47**	.44**	.37**	.48**	.11	.32*	.17
Variable	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
15. WR Adverbs	-
16. OR Text Structure	.22	-
17. WR Text Structure	.31*	.56**	-
18. OR Sentence Structure	.03	.79**	.59**	-
19. WR Sentence Structure	.20	.49**	.78**	.56**	-
20. OR Vocabulary	-.13	.78**	.51**	.76**	.47**	-
21. WR Vocabulary	.20	.49**	.87**	.50**	.83**	.53**	-
22. OR Omitted words	-.23	-.17	-.40**	-.16	-.39**	.04	-.38**	-
23 WR Omitted words	.06	-.13	.16	-.21	-.24	-.17	-.08	.05	-
24. OR Omitted bound morph	.21	.03	-.07	.09	-.18	.01	-.02	.17	.15	-
25. WR Omitted bound morph	.22	-.08	.01	-.11	-.38**	-.15	-.13	.13	.35**	.68**	-
26. OR Word errors	.13	.14	.03	.09	-.17	.00	-.08	.42**	.05	.41**	.41**	-
27. WR Word errors	.23	.06	.04	-.09	-.28	.16	-.06	.09	.21	.42**	.49**	.42**	-
28. WR Words spelled correctly	.48**	.47**	.75**	.39**	.73**	.33**	.73**	-.26*	.05	.02	.05	.13	.19	-
29. WR Spelling	.44**	.55**	.75**	.49**	.74**	.42**	.78**	-.34*	-.08	.07	.10	.07	.07	.83**	-
30. WR Handwriting	.49**	.42**	.63**	.45**	.65**	.27*	.62**	-.14	-.06	.18	.30*	.18	.22	.66**	.77**	-
31. WR Punctuation	.29*	.57**	.63**	.45**	.63**	.48**	.64**	-.27*	-.14	.01	.04	.20	.03	.69**	.76**	.62**

Note: Pearson correlation: * significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed); ** significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); OR = Oral retell; WR = written retell; Variables 4–17, 24–29 N = 62; Variables 1–3, 18–23, 30–33 N = 76.

Table 2. Correlations between retell and other literacy measures.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1. WR Number words	–
2. Oral narrative comp.	.50**	–
3. WR Ideation total	.84**	.60**	–
4. WR Transcription total	.75**	.55**	.80**	–
5. Phoneme awareness	.44**	.39**	.59**	.39**	–
6. Nonword reading GC	.52**	.42**	.61**	.56**	.65**	–
7. Nonword spelling GC	.60**	.40**	.73**	.58**	.71**	.80**	–
8. Text reading WC	.58**	.35**	.60**	.57**	.52**	.84**	.73**	–
9. WR WSC	.90**	.44**	.78**	.81**	.44**	.62**	.63**	.63**	–
10. WR Spelling	.75**	.54**	.80**	.94**	.42**	.62**	.64**	.61**	.83**
11. WR Handwriting	.64**	.48**	.67**	.91**	.24*	.40**	.47**	.46**	.66**	.77**	–
12. WR Punctuation	.62**	.48**	.68**	.85**	.42**	.51**	.45**	.47**	.69**	.76**	.62**	–
13. WR Combined total	.84**	.61**	.98**	.89**	.57**	.64**	.72**	.62**	.83**	.90**	.73**	.79**

Notes. * Pearson correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

WR = written retell; Ideation total = text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary QST scores; Transcription total = spelling, handwriting, punctuation QST scores; Combined total = text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation QST scores; Phoneme awareness = phoneme blending & segmenting scores; GC = graphemes correct; WC = words correct; WSC =words spelled correctly.

N = 76.

Table 3. Hierarchical linear regression for written narrative retell.

		B	SE B	β
Step 1	OR Comprehension	1.44	0.27	.49**
	OR No. words	0.05	0.01	.33**
Step 2	OR Comprehension	0.57	0.19	.19*
	OR No. words	0.03	0.01	.19*
	WR Handwriting	1.58	0.30	.36**
	Nonword spelling	0.13	0.03	.36**
	Text reading	0.02	0.02	.08

Note. Dependent variable: Combined retell writing QST score (text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation); OR = Oral retell, WR =  Written retell; R² =  .468 for Step 1, ΔR² =  .323 for Step 2 (ps<.001), *p<.05, **p<.001.

Table 4. Demographics of groups based on number of words produced in each retell.

	Group				Sample
	1 Below both n = 23 (30%)	2 Below written n = 12 (16%)	3 Below oral n = 13 (17%)	4 Above both n = 28 (37%)	Totals N = 76 (100%)
NWO	49.3	110.6	64.2	104.1	81.7
NWW	35.6	45.7	91.3	99.3	70.2
Mean age (months)	76.3	76.4	77.5	77.1	76.8
Gender
Boys	11 (52%)	11 (92%)	4 (31%)	9 (32%)	35 (46%)
Girls	12 (48%)	1 (8%)	9 (69%)	19 (68%)	41 (54%)
Ethnicity
NZ European	9 (39%)	7 (58%)	3 (23%)	16 (57%)	35 (46%)
Māori	1 (4%)	1 (8.5%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	2 (2.5%)
Asian	8 (35%)	3 (25%)	8 (62%)	9 (32%)	28 (37%)
Pasifika	1 (4%)	0 (0%)	1 (7.5%)	0 (0%)	2 (2.5%)
Other	4 (17%)	1 (8.5%)	1 (7.5%)	3 (11%)	9 (12%)

Note. NWO = mean number of words in oral retell; NWW = mean number of words in written retell.

Table 5. Results for group differences.

Variable	ANOVA F(3,72)	Kruskal-Wallis Test H(3, N = 76)
Oral narrative comprehension	5.40, p = .002**	10.30, p = .016*
Oral retell ideation	11.82, p < .001***	31.19, p < .001***
Written retell ideation	16.53, p < .001***	35.17, p < .001***
Written retell handwriting	8.31, p < .001***	21.06, p < .001***
Written retell spelling	12.67, p < .001***	27.85, p < .001***
Written retell punctuation	8.46, p < .001***	22.29, p < .001***
Phoneme awareness	2.83, p = .044*	6.91, p = .075
Nonword spelling graphemes correct	5.52, p = .002**	13.44, p = .004**
Nonword reading graphemes correct	5.63, p = .002**	14.86, p = .002**
Text reading words correct	7.00, p < .001***	11.05, p = .011*

Note. * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001; Ideation = combined QST scores for text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary.

Figure A1. Qualitative Scoring Tool.

Note: Adapted from Mackenzie et al. (2013) and Scull et al. (2020).^aResearcher adaptations.

Figure A2. Curriculum-based Measures (CBM) adapted from Jewell and Malecki (2005).

Figure A3. Oral and written retell comparison for a child representative of the mean.

Table B1. Descriptive statistics.

	N	Mean	SD	Min-Max	Skewness	Kurtosis
Oral Narrative Comprehension	76	5.1	1.7	0–8	−1.1	1.6
Oral retell
Number of words	76	81.7	33.9	0–155	−0.3	0.0
Number of c-units	74	14.5	4.4	5–25	0.1	−0.3
Mean length c-unit	74	6.1	1.0	3.2-8.3	−0.1	0.1
Text Structure	76	3.9	0.9	0–5	−2.3	7.7
Sentence Structure	76	3.3	0.9	0–4	−1.7	3.9
Vocabulary	76	3.2	0.9	0–5	−1.3	3.5
Ideation Totalª	76	10.3	2.4	0–13	−2.2	7.2
Number of nouns	74	18.6	7.5	5–48	0.6	2.1
Number of verbs	74	15.9	6.1	3–33	0.2	0.0
Number of adjectives	74	2.5	1.9	0–8	0.7	0.1
Number of adverbs	74	5.5	4.4	0–23	1.3	2.6
Omitted words	74	0.7	1.1	0–5	1.7	3.1
Omitted bound morphemes	74	0.5	1.0	0–6	3.4	12.9
Word Errors	74	2.8	2.7	0–13	1.6	2.6
Written retell
Number of words	76	70.2	36.2	0–149	−0.3	−0.3
Number of c-units	62	13.7	4.0	3–25	0.2	0.7
Mean length c-unit	62	5.7	1.0	1.3-7.6	−1.6	6.8
Text Structure	76	3.7	1.4	0–5	−1.4	0.9
Sentence Structure	76	2.7	1.1	0–5	−0.3	−0.1
Vocabulary	76	3.0	1.3	0–5	−0.9	0.7
Ideation totalª	76	9.4	3.6	0–15	−1.1	0.9
Number of nouns	62	21.1	8.9	4–47	0.7	0.5
Number of verbs	62	15.1	5.7	2–31	0.4	0.5
Number of adjectives	62	2.3	1.8	0–9	1.5	2.7
Number of adverbs	62	3.5	3.3	0–13	1.1	0.7
Omitted words	62	0.8	1.0	0–4	1.4	1.9
Omitted bound morphemes	62	0.7	1.3	0–5	1.7	2.0
Word errors	62	2.3	2.1	0–8	0.9	0.0
Number of words spelled correctly	76	40.7	27.7	0–142	0.6	0.9
Spelling	76	2.9	1.1	0–6	−0.5	1.0
Handwriting	76	2.8	1.2	0–6	0.0	0.4
Punctuation	76	1.8	0.8	0–5	0.7	3.8
Transcription totalª	76	7.5	2.8	0–17	−0.3	2.1
Writing QST total	76	17.0	6.0	0–32	−1.0	1.5
Other literacy measures
Phoneme awareness	76	17.1	3.3	7–23	−0.6	0.1
Nonword reading graphemes correct	76	55.9	19.1	0–80	−1.2	0.9
Nonword spelling graphemes correct	76	52.4	13.9	0–68	−1.4	2.0
Text reading words correct	76	64.88	23.8	3–84	−1.3	0.4

Note: ªIdeation total = combined QST scores for text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary; ^bTranscription total = combined QST scores for spelling, handwriting, punctuation

Table B2. Paired samples correlations comparing oral & written retells.

		Statistics	Paired Differences
	N	Mean (SD)	Correlation	Sig.	t	Sig.
Pair 1	Words – Oral	76	81.7 (33.9)	.50**	<.001	2.86	.006**
	Words – Written		70.2 (36.2)
Pair 2	C-units – Oral	62	14.6 (4.3)	.19	.14	1.40	.168
	C-units – Written		13.7 (4.0)
Pair 3	Mean length of C-unit – Oral	62	6.2 (1.0)	.36**	.004	3.63	<.001**
	Mean length of C-unit – Written		5.7 (1.0)
Pair 4	Nouns – Oral	62	19.2 (7.4)	.43**	<.001	−1.72	.091
	Nouns – Written		21.1 (8.9)
Pair 5	Verbs – Oral	62	16.3 (6.0)	.27*	.037	1.37	.175
	Verbs – Written		15.1 (5.7)
Pair 6	Adjectives – Oral	62	2.5 (1.9)	.02	.880	0.72	.473
	Adjectives – Written		2.3 (1.80)
Pair 7	Adverbs – Oral	62	5.6 (4.4)	.51**	<.001	4.31	<.001**
	Adverbs – Written		3.5 (3.3)
Pair 8	Omitted Words – Oral	62	0.6 (1.0)	.05	.705	−0.93	.357
	Omitted Words – Written		0.8 (1.0)
Pair 9	Omitted Bound Morph – Oral	62	0.4 (1.0)	.68**	<.001	−2.58	.012*
	Omitted Bound Morph – Written		0.7 (1.3)
Pair 10	Word Level Errors – Oral	62	2.7 (2.5)	.42**	<.001	1.22	.227
	Word Level Errors – Written		2.3 (2.1)
Pair 11	Text Structure – Oral	76	3.9 (0.9)	.56**	<.001	1.08	.286
	Text Structure – Written		3.7 (1.4)
Pair 12	Sentence Structure – Oral	76	3.3 (0.9)	.56**	<.001	5.80	<.001**
	Sentence Structure – Written		2.7 (1.1)
Pair 13	Vocabulary – Oral	76	3.2 (0.9)	.53**	<.001	1.06	.295
	Vocabulary – Written		3.0 (1.3)

* Correlation significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Figure B1. Distributions of retell and literacy measures.

Figure B1. Continued.

Table B3. Descriptive statistics for groups 1–4.

Variable	Group	N	Mean	SD	Min-Max
Oral narrative comprehension	1	23	4.0	2.2	0–7
	2	12	5.3	1.1	4–7
	3	13	5.5	1.3	3–7
	4	28	5.8	1.3	3–8
Oral retell ideationª	1	23	8.4	3.1	0–12
	2	12	11.5	1.1	9–13
	3	13	9.9	1.8	5–12
	4	28	11.6	1.1	10–13
Written retell ideationª	1	23	6.5	3.7	0–11
	2	12	8.1	3.3	2–11
	3	13	11.2	1.8	8–15
	4	28	11.6	2.0	7–15
Written retell handwriting	1	23	2.1	1.3	0–5
	2	12	2.3	0.6	1–3
	3	13	3.5	0.8	3–5
	4	28	3.3	1.0	2–6
Written retell spelling	1	23	2.2	1.2	0–4
	2	12	2.3	0.8	1–3
	3	13	3.4	0.5	3–4
	4	28	3.6	0.9	2–6
Written retell punctuation	1	23	1.3	0.7	0–2
	2	12	1.6	0.5	1–2
	3	13	2.2	0.7	1–4
	4	28	2.2	0.7	1–5
Nonword spelling	1	23	46.3	16.8	0–65
	2	12	45.5	16.1	20–68
	3	13	55.5	8.0	41–67
	4	28	58.9	8.7	33–68
Nonword reading	1	23	49.2	22.0	0–76
	2	12	43.7	20.8	7–69
	3	13	61.2	15.1	28–78
	4	28	64.3	12.1	33–80
Text reading	1	23	54.2	29.8	3–84
	2	12	50.3	27.1	3–81
	3	13	75.9	9.5	52–84
	4	28	74.8	12.3	34–84
Phoneme awareness	1	23	16.0	3.7	7–22
	2	12	15.9	3.5	10–21
	3	13	17.5	2.2	14–21
	4	28	18.3	2.9	11–23

Note: ªIdeation total = combined QST scores for text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary.

Table B4. Post hoc test group comparisons for retell and other literacy measures.

			Scheffe			Kruskal-Wallis
Variable	Groups		Mean Difference	Sig.		Test Statistic	Adj. Sig¹
Oral narrative comprehension	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−1.21	.216		−10.21	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−1.42	.094		−14.32	.329
		4 Above Both	−1.74*	.003		−19.07*	.010
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−0.21	.990		−4.11	1.00
		4 Above Both	−0.54	.811		−8.86	1.00
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−0.32	.946		−4.75	1.00
Oral retell ideationª	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−3.07*	.003		−30.01*	.001
		3 Below Oral	−1.49	.227		−9.96	1.00
		4 Above Both	−3.17*	<.001		−30.96*	.000
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	1.58	.299		−20.05	.127
		4 Above Both	−0.11	.999		−0.94	1.00
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−1.68	.118		−20.99*	.024
Written retell ideationª	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−1.56	.486		−8.17	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−4.71*	<.001		−30.05*	.000
		4 Above Both	−5.05*	<.001		−33.11*	.000
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−3.15	.056		−21.88	.075
		4 Above Both	−3.49*	.007		−24.94*	.006
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−0.34	.988		−3.06	1.00
Handwriting	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−0.12	.991		−0.10	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−1.33*	.005		−25.44*	.003
		4 Above Both	−1.16*	.002		−20.66*	.003
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−1.21*	.041		−25.34*	.017
		4 Above Both	−1.04*	.043		−20.55*	.030
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	0.18	.967		−4.78	1.00
Spelling	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−0.16	.971		−0.18	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−1.21*	.004		−23.26*	.008
		4 Above Both	−1.40*	<.001		−26.48*	.000
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−1.05*	.048		−23.08*	.036
		4 Above Both	−1.24*	.003		−26.30*	.002
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−0.19	.946		−3.21	1.00
Punctuation	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	−0.28	.726		−6.27	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−0.85*	.008		−21.79*	.005
		4 Above Both	−0.87*	<.001		−22.54*	.000
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−0.57	.235		−15.52	.243
		4 Above Both	−0.60	.101		−16.27	.076
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−0.03	1.00		-.749	1.00
Nonword spelling	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	0.80	.999		−1.02	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−9.23	.239		−10.68	.978
		4 Above Both	−12.55*	.010		−20.08*	.007
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−10.04	.289		−11.70	1.00
		4 Above Both	−13.36*	.034		−21.10*	.033
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−3.32	.897		−9.40	1.00
Nonword reading	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	5.51	.854		−7.48	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−12.06	.277		−14.15	.388
		4 Above Both	−15.11*	.031		−17.29*	.032
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−17.56	.108		−21.62	.086
		4 Above Both	−20.62*	.012		−24.76*	.007
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	−3.05	.965		−3.14	1.00
Text reading	1 Below Both	2 Below Written	3.92	.966		−9.98	1.00
		3 Below Oral	−21.75*	.042		−12.71	.580
		4 Above Both	−20.65*	.012		−11.89	.332
	2 Below Written	3 Below Oral	−25.67*	.036		−22.69	.061
		4 Above Both	−24.57*	.015		−21.87*	.024
	3 Below Oral	4 Above Both	1.10	.999		−0.82	1.00

Note: N = 76; ¹Bonferroni correction for multiple tests, significance level is .050; Bold* = significant results; ªIdeation total = combined QST scores for text structure, sentence structure, vocabulary.

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