Becoming fictional storytellers: African American children's oral narrative development in early elementary school

Abstract

Oral storytelling skills are a complex oral discourse competency with implications for children's academic and social well‐being, yet few studies have investigated the development of these skills among typically developing African American children. The current study used longitudinal data, collected between 2012 and 2013, from 130 African American children (59–95 months old; 66 girls) to explore the development of fictional oral narrative skills. Results showed growth in macrostructure (i.e., story grammar) and microstructure productivity (i.e., number of total words; number of different words) over the school year. There was no evidence of growth in microstructure complexity. Nonverbal cognitive skills emerged as an individual difference in predicting oral narrative production. This study contributes to increasing the knowledge base needed to support African American children's oral language development.