The effectiveness of a clinician-created narrative intervention with at-risk 3rd grade students’ spoken and written narratives
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Emily Hamuka (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Alan Kamhi
Abstract: Narrative language skills are important for academic and social success. The ability to produce well-formed and coherent spoken narratives has been shown to be highly correlated with proficient reading and writing (Kirby, Spencer, & Chen, 2021; Spencer & Petersen, 2018; Petersen et al., 2020). The importance of narrative abilities for academic performance has led a number of researchers in our profession (e.g., Gillam et al., 2018; Gillam et al., 2023; Spencer &Petersen, 2018; Petersen et. al., 2022) to develop interventions to improve narrative abilities. These studies of narrative language intervention have varied duration, population, and items tested. Few studies have looked at using a clinician created intervention approach that is manageable for any school- based Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) to implement in the time they have available during the school day to impact at-risk students. Fewer studies have looked at the outcomes for at-risk students to increase oral and written language skills to help catch up to high-achieving peers. In this study, we question whether a clinician created narrative intervention using grade-level texts delivered in 2-week vs. 4-week frequency would have the same benefits in improving spoken and written narrative abilities of 3rd- grade at-risk students. Participants were 16 at-risk 3rd grade students at a local elementary school. Classroom teachers identified students as being at-risk if they received interventions in 2nd grade or if they scored below the proficient level on the Beginning of Grade Reading Test. Pre- and post- intervention assessment measures were obtained for both spoken and written narratives, but the instruction only targeted spoken narrative production. Two groups of four students were seen four times a week for two weeks; the other two groups were seen twice a week for four weeks. All students received a total of eight intervention sessions. Each intervention session used a novel grade level passage and story prompt and followed the same six steps in the Clinician Created Narrative Intervention (CCNI). The CCNI targeted activating prior knowledge, listening comprehension with the use of graphic organizers, story retell that incorporated scaffolds and feedback, and story generation. The 2- and 4-week interventions both led to significant gains in total Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language (MISL) scores for spoken and written narratives. These results are similar to the findings of previous studies showing that intensive narrative instruction can lead to noticeable gains in narrative performance (e.g., Gillam et al., 2018, Gillam et al., 2023, Hessling &Schuele, 2019; Petersen et al., 2014, Petersen et al., 2022). The improvements in total MISL scores for both the spoken and written narratives did not differ for the 2- and 4-week groups. Significant gains in narrative ability can be attained by high intensity (4-days a week) interventions as short as 2-weeks. In conclusion, more than 80% of 3rd grade at-risk students showed noticeable gains in their spoken and written narratives after eight 30-minute intervention sessions with the CCNI over two or four weeks. The CCNI targeted the macro- and microstructure elements of stories that are needed for age-appropriate story retell and spontaneous story generation. These findings indicate that clinicians do not need to use a published narrative intervention program to improve their students’ narrative abilities. Importantly, SLPs can use the CCNI in Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions with students who are performing below grade level in reading which allows SLPs to target narratives abilities with at-risk students as well as those on their caseloads. The CCNI could also be tailored to culturally and linguistically diverse students by creating stories that reflect students’ cultural-linguistic background and experiences. Using the CCNI thus will not only improve students’ spoken and written narratives, it can also lead to improvements across curriculum.
The effectiveness of a clinician-created narrative intervention with at-risk 3rd grade students’ spoken and written narratives
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Created on 5/1/2024
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Narrative Intervention, Narrative Language, Spoken Narrative, Written Narrative
- Subjects
- Narration (Rhetoric) $x Study and teaching (Elementary)
- At-risk youth $x Education (Elementary)
- Storytelling in education