Brief tiered collaborative narrative intervention for kindergarten students: An exploratory study

Abstract

Early language and emergent literacy skills are predictive of subsequent academic success [1,2]. Children's oral narratives are important in understanding this relationship because limited narrative skills have been demonstrated to be predictive of poor language outcomes [3]. Narrative discourse bridges the gap between contextualized oral and decontextualized literate language and is foundational in the development of reading and writing skills [4]. Beyond its foundation in literacy, narrative discourse is an important component of oral language that is essential to the human experience. Stories allow us to build connections with the people around us, which influences social competence [5]. Children begin school with varying levels of oral language competency Purpose: Children enter school with varying levels of oral language skills and exposure to the narrative structure used in academic contexts based on individual, family, and environmental factors. Multi-tiered instructional models can be used to appropriately identify and support students who need intensive intervention while minimizing over-identification of students. The purpose of this increasing intensity study was to explore the clinical applicability of a tiered narrative language intervention for kindergarten students at-risk for academic difficulties.Methods: Eleven kindergarten students who speak African American English (AAE) participated in a large group co-taught narrative language instruction. An increasing intensity design was used to identify treatment responders and treatment minimal responders. Minimal responders were provided individualized intervention.Results: Eight students were characterized as responders to the large group instruction because of their increased narrative retell performance. Three students were minimal responders to the large group instruction and resultantly received a brief individualized intervention. Throughout the study, students improved their narrative language performance measured by story grammar, story episodes, and language complexity. Conclusions:The feasibility of this collaborative narrative intervention with increasing intensity based on student response coupled with recent tiered narrative experimental studies is promising. Clinical implications of using multi-tiered narrative language systems in elementary school are discussed.