Assessing pre-schoolers’ narrative skills

Abstract

This paper refers to a research conducted in the region of Patra, Achaia in Greece in spring 2016. Its purpose was a) the assessment of pre-schoolers' narrative skills and b) the examination of its possible correlation with family sociocultural background. The participants were 32 children of the higher level of age in preschool education (5-6 years old), picked up from 2 different public kindergartens, equally separated in terms of gender and social background. Children were called to produce oral retellings of a book that had previously been read to them. Their texts were recorded and analysed according to "The Story Pyramid Framework". The findings of the research seem to confirm that there is a strong and intense correlation between pre-schoolers' narrative skills and their sociocultural background. Children that come from more privileged social backgrounds produced more integrated narratives than their peers who come from less privileged family contexts, while no significant differences were observed between genders.