Episodic development in preschool children's play-prompted and direct-elicited narratives

This study investigated the premise that action, manifested here through pretend play, is a semiotic arena that can enhance narrative development. It was hypothesized that children would produce structurally more complex narratives in play-prompted elicitation than in direct elicitation conditions,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive development 2005-10, Vol.20 (4), p.526-544
Main Authors: Ilgaz, Hande, Aksu-Koç, Ayhan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Direct elicitation
Episodic structure
Foreign Countries
Language Acquisition
Narrative development
Play-prompted elicitation
Preschool Children
Story Grammar
Teaching Methods
Turkey
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Summary:This study investigated the premise that action, manifested here through pretend play, is a semiotic arena that can enhance narrative development. It was hypothesized that children would produce structurally more complex narratives in play-prompted elicitation than in direct elicitation conditions, and that this competence would increase with age. Thirty Turkish 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, with 10 children per age group, participated in the study. Children's narratives were analyzed according to a story grammar framework that differentiated between pre-episodic and episodic structures. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant effect between age and type of elicitation condition. Narratives displaying an episodic structure with temporal–causally integrated components were observed in the play-prompt elicitation condition by 4-year-olds and in the direct elicitation condition by 5-year-olds, supporting the hypothesis that action helps enhance narrative development. It is concluded that the emerging competence of children to construct narratives with episodic structures can best be observed in play contexts where action and objects scaffold both the conceptual organization and its expression.
ISSN:0885-2014
1879-226X
DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2005.08.004