This study investigated story journaling to enhance story comprehension. Eighteen kindergarten children participated in this six-week study with the teacher reading a total of twenty-four stories to the class. The class was randomly divided into Group A and Group B, with 3 focus participants from each group retelling the story. The retelling was audio taped and analyzed using Morrow's (2001) procedures. Group B experienced the intervention of story journaling on the third week of the study and showed an improvement in story comprehension during the fifth and sixth weeks of story journaling. Group A did not experience the intervention of story journaling until the fifth week of the study and showed a slight improvement by the end of the sixth week of story journaling. There appears to be a connection of story journaling to story comprehension when children are given the opportunity to story journal after hearing a story.

Narration, or storytelling, is an important aspect of language. Narrative skills have practical and social importance; for example, children who tell good stories receive attention and approval from their peers. When children accurately recount events surrounding an injury or dispute, vital information is passed to parents and teachers. Additionally, early childhood narrative skills are moderately correlated with reading comprehension in primary grades. Because narration is socially and academically valued, language interventionists often address it. The research literature on narrative intervention has most often included school-aged participants and those with language or learning difficulties. Only a small number of studies have investigated narrative intervention with preschoolers, and the supporting evidence is suggestive rather than conclusive. Outcomes frequently targeted include narrative story grammar (e.g., character, problem, action, consequence) and general language outcomes (e.g., length of story, mean length of communication unit, and total number of words). Results have been generally positive; however, the methodological quality of studies is poor. Therefore, few firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the efficacy of narrative interventions. Because of its potential and popularity, the effect of narrative intervention on a range of populations needs to be examined systematically through high quality research. This study evaluated the effects of a narrative intervention on story retelling and story generation using a multiple baseline design with five target participants. We delivered narrative intervention in a small group arrangement. Materials, activities, and instructor assistance were adjusted systematically within session to facilitate increasingly independent practice of story retells and personal story generations. Results suggest that narrative intervention improved participants' narrative retell and personal generation performance based on Index of Narrative Complexity (INC) scores. All five target participants made substantial gains in narrative retelling, demonstrated improved pre-intervention to post-intervention INC scores for personal generations, and these improvements maintained when assessed following a 2-week break. In addition, we documented growth in general language measures such as number of communication units, mean length of utterance, number of different words, and total number of words.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to compare preschool children's comprehension of a story after either enacting the story or participating in an art project, and (b) to qualitatively describe the children's interactions during the more interactive story enactment instruction. Twenty children from two Head Start classrooms were told the stories as a class, and then participated in either an art project (AP) or story enactment (SE) in small groups. The children in each classroom each heard three stories followed by the AP condition, and three followed by the SE condition. The children's comprehension of the story was tested after the story was initially read, and again after the AP or SE by having the children participate in a joint retelling of the story in which the child was asked to fill in several pieces of information as the examiner told the story. Children's comprehension of the story was significantly better after receiving story enactment instruction than after art project instruction, although significant variability was present. Children's interactions during the story enactment were evaluated using a rubric. Children's participation varied from story to story. Smaller group sizes and repeated enactments were beneficial to most children's participation in the story.

<p>In a school for children from 6-9 years in a small town in the southeast of Sweden, is areading activity program in progress since 8 years. The original purpose of this program wasto enhance the student’s reading interest. All of the students read at least one book a week andthen they review the book in front of the class.</p><p>The purpose of the present study was to examine vocabulary, word retrieving, narrative skillsand grammatical abilities in children in this school. The objectives were to investigate if thechosen language abilities in these children were different compared to normative data andearlier studies in children at comparable ages. Furthermore, the aim was to study if narrative skills correlated with vocabulary, word retrieving and grammatical ability.</p><p>The examination was carried out by testing 65 students in the school regarding the chosenlanguage abilities. The results showed that these students had better vocabulary compared to American normative data and earlier Swedish studies. In narratives they produced stories inchronological order and they included a large amount of information. Narrative abilitiescorrelated with receptive vocabulary, word retrieving and grammatical abilities.</p><p>It was concluded that reading promoting activities may have affected these student’s languageabilities in a positive way.</p> / <p>I en skola för barn mellan 6 och 9 år i en liten stad i sydöstra Sverige pågår sedan 8 år tillbakaen aktivitet vars ursprungliga syfte var att öka elevernas läsintresse. Alla elever läser minst enbok i veckan och gör därefter en recension som de läser upp i klassen.</p><p>Syftet med föreliggande studie var att studera ordförråd, ordmobilisering, narrativ förmågasamt grammatisk förmåga hos eleverna på den utvalda skolan. Frågeställningarna varhuruvida utvalda språkförmågor hos eleverna skiljde sig från normativa data och tidigarestudier av barn i jämförbara åldrar. Vidare undersöktes om narrativ förmåga hade någotsamband med ordförråd, ordmobilisering och grammatisk förmåga.</p><p>Undersökningen gjordes genom att 65 elever på skolan testades med avseende på de utvalda språkförmågorna. Resultatet visade att dessa elever hade ett bättre ordförråd jämfört medamerikansk normering och tidigare svenska studier. Gällande elevernas narrativa förmåga berättade de i kronologisk ordning och återgav många delhändelser i historien. Resultatetvisade också att narrativ förmåga hade samband med impressivt ordförråd, ordmobiliseringoch grammatisk förmåga.</p><p>Slutsatsen var att den läsfrämjande aktiviteten kan ha påverkat dessa elevers språkförmågorpositivt.</p>

In a school for children from 6-9 years in a small town in the southeast of Sweden, is areading activity program in progress since 8 years. The original purpose of this program wasto enhance the student’s reading interest. All of the students read at least one book a week andthen they review the book in front of the class. The purpose of the present study was to examine vocabulary, word retrieving, narrative skillsand grammatical abilities in children in this school. The objectives were to investigate if thechosen language abilities in these children were different compared to normative data andearlier studies in children at comparable ages. Furthermore, the aim was to study if narrative skills correlated with vocabulary, word retrieving and grammatical ability. The examination was carried out by testing 65 students in the school regarding the chosenlanguage abilities. The results showed that these students had better vocabulary compared to American normative data and earlier Swedish studies. In narratives they produced stories inchronological order and they included a large amount of information. Narrative abilitiescorrelated with receptive vocabulary, word retrieving and grammatical abilities. It was concluded that reading promoting activities may have affected these student’s languageabilities in a positive way. / I en skola för barn mellan 6 och 9 år i en liten stad i sydöstra Sverige pågår sedan 8 år tillbakaen aktivitet vars ursprungliga syfte var att öka elevernas läsintresse. Alla elever läser minst enbok i veckan och gör därefter en recension som de läser upp i klassen. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att studera ordförråd, ordmobilisering, narrativ förmågasamt grammatisk förmåga hos eleverna på den utvalda skolan. Frågeställningarna varhuruvida utvalda språkförmågor hos eleverna skiljde sig från normativa data och tidigarestudier av barn i jämförbara åldrar. Vidare undersöktes om narrativ förmåga hade någotsamband med ordförråd, ordmobilisering och grammatisk förmåga. Undersökningen gjordes genom att 65 elever på skolan testades med avseende på de utvalda språkförmågorna. Resultatet visade att dessa elever hade ett bättre ordförråd jämfört medamerikansk normering och tidigare svenska studier. Gällande elevernas narrativa förmåga berättade de i kronologisk ordning och återgav många delhändelser i historien. Resultatetvisade också att narrativ förmåga hade samband med impressivt ordförråd, ordmobiliseringoch grammatisk förmåga. Slutsatsen var att den läsfrämjande aktiviteten kan ha påverkat dessa elevers språkförmågorpositivt.