The use of evaluative expressions in the narratives of adolescents with a history of SLI

ABSTRACT

Typically, young children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI; also called Developmental language disorder, DLD) have been found to show weakness in narrative development, and such weakness has been judged to be unlikely to resolve over time. However, developmental outcomes for adolescents with a prior SLI diagnosis have not been thoroughly studied. In particular, studies on the evaluative aspects of narratives of such persons are almost non-existent. Here we examine the question whether narrative evaluation of adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI remains problematic into adolescence or comes to resemble more typical narrative performance. We compare the use of evaluative expressions in the narratives of 19 adolescents diagnosed with SLI against 19 typically language developing (TLD) peers. Spoken narratives by the SLI group (Mean age = 14.3; SD = 0.64) and TLD group (Mean age = 14.5; SD = 0.84) using the wordless picture storybook “Frog, where are you?” (https://childes.talkbank.org/access/Clinical-MOR/Conti/Conti4.html) were analysed. Each narrative was coded for evaluative clauses, types of evaluative devices (frames of mind, character speech, hedges, negatives, and causal connectives), as well as evaluative perspectives (global vs. local). Although the quantitative analysis did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, the qualitative analysis showed certain notable strengths in the narrative skills of the focal group of SLI adolescents. Results suggest that adolescents with a history of SLI may approximate TLD narrative skill in evaluating their own narratives, but additional work with more sensitive measures applied at intervals are needed to illuminate developmental pathways of narrative production and of evaluative capacities in adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluative expressions
• narrative development
• adolescents with SLI

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Gina Condi-Ramsden and her research team who contributed their narrative data to CHILDES and gave us permission to use the data for analysis. This work would not have been possible without her kindness and generosity.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.