Microgenesis of typical storytelling

ABSTRACT

We studied the development of narrative ability yearly in a cross-sectional design from 4 to 10 years. All children were given the same props and underwent the same procedures. Children’s narratives were transcribed verbatim, and then coded for number of words, propositions, episodes and indexes of narrative cohesion and structure. Verbal IQ was controlled as appropriate. Words showed no significant effect for age. A number of propositions and episodes followed nonlinear trajectories of development, and spline regression analyses identified maxima at 8 and 7 years, respectively. However, indexes of cohesion and structure followed linear trajectories of development.

KEYWORDS:

• story telling
• narrative cohesion
• narrative development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gianluca Esposito is the head of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab (NTU, Singapore) and the Affiliative Behavior and Physiology Lab (UniTN, Italy). He is qualified to advance the ongoing investigations on the neural and physiological basis of socal interaction contributing strengths in human electrophysiology and neuroimaging, complex data modeling, and comparative physiological assessment. He applies physiological, genetic, neuroimaging and behavioral protocols in the context of infant socio-cognitive development.

Paola Venuti is a professor of ‘Child Psychopathology’ at the University of Trento, Italy. She is also the head of the Observational and Functional Diagnosis Lab (ODFLab). The ODFLab is devoted to the study of emotional and cognitive development in typically developing children and in children with special needs (in particular children with Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Giuseppe Iandolo has a PhD in Developmental Psychology and a Psy.D in Clinical Psychology. He is Postgraduate Program Director in Developmental Psychology and Assistant Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the European University of Madrid (Spain). He is head of unit at PSISE Madrid – Clinical Psychological Service (Spain). His specific focus is on typical and atypical human development, narrative development, projective techniques, parenting styles and psychotherapy.

Simona de Falco has a PhD in cognitive science and education. She is Associate Professor at the University of Trento (Italy). Her specific focus is on the early emotional development.

Christine Wei is a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia with a BA in psychology.

Marc H. Bornstein is the senior investigator and head of child and family research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He is also president of the Society for Research in Child Devlopment and editor of the journal Parenting: Science and Practice.

Giulio Gabrieli is a PhD Student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Previously, he completed his Master studies in Human-Computer Interaction at University of Trento (Italy), where he also pursued his Bs in Interfaces and Communication Technology. His research interests are focused on UI and UX design, Brain Computer Interfaces and neurophysiological (EEG, EMG, ECG, EDA, Pupillometry, Voice, Infant cry) signal processing.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Nanyang Assistant Professor Start-Up Grant, the Intramural Research Program of the NIH/NICHD, USA, and an International Research Fellowship in collaboration with the Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies (EDePO) at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London, UK, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG).