How executive functions predict development in syntactic complexity of narrative writing in the upper elementary grades

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of transcription skills, oral language skills, and executive functions to growth in narrative writing between fourth and sixth grade. While text length and story content of narratives did not increase with age, syntactic complexity of narratives showed a clear developmental progression. Results from path analyses revealed that later syntactic complexity of narrative writing was, in addition to initial syntactic complexity, predicted by oral grammar, inhibition, and planning. These results are discussed in light of the changes that characterize writing development in the upper elementary grades. More specifically, this study emphasizes the relevance of syntactic complexity as a developmental marker as well as the importance of executive functions for later writing development.

Clause Chaining and Discourse Continuity in Turkish Children's Narratives

“…Constructing complex sentences, whether by clause chaining or combining, requires planning, holding the subordinate units in working memory and inhibiting irrelevant information, all subskills of executive functions. In narrative discourse in particular, remembering the subject of a previous clause, and evaluating whether it is same as, or different from the one(s) in the current and upcoming clauses is important for referential continuity and for shifting perspectives (Drijbooms et al, 2017). The effects of these processing constraints are likely to be somewhat reduced between the ages of 4 and 5, the age bracket when executive functions show a significant development (Friend and Bates, 2014).…”

The development of narrative skills in Turkish-speaking children: A complexity approach

“…Updating, responsible for keeping and monitoring representations in memory and modifying them according to new information is required to '[recall] prior episodes or episodic components in order to appropriately elaborate the story' [37, p.827]. Inhibition refers to the ability to selectively attend to specific tasks, to complete the task without being influenced by distractors and to inhibit prepotent responses [38]. It is essential for narration, because the narrator needs to focus on the narrative and complete it without getting distracted.…”

“…It is essential for narration, because the narrator needs to focus on the narrative and complete it without getting distracted. In addition, the narrator has to inhibit extraneous or inappropriate comments for a coherent narrative [37,38]. Executive function is also needed for the formation of syntactic structures in narrative.…”

Does audio-visual binding as an integrative function of working memory influence the early stages of learning to write?

“…Since the primary function of binding is to maintain and integrate codes of information that are being concurrently stored and processed by working memory, this suggests that it would play an important role in writing. The dominant current position is to examine the functions of the central executive and how this relates to different ages of children, and processes, developmental stages and genres of writing (e.g., Drijbooms et al, 2015Drijbooms et al, , 2017. While this is an important development and will necessarily inform instruction within the classroom, it would also be useful to begin to create an understanding of the nature and extent of the integration processes that develop in young children, especially those that relate directly to the task of early writing (e.g., audio, visual, linguistic, semantic, temporal or haptic binding).…”

“…Although, the contribution made by verbal central executive factors to early writing development has been reliably demonstrated across studies once those factors have been taken into account (Alloway et al, 2005;Bourke & Adams, 2003;Kim, Al Otaiba, Wanzenk, & Gatlin, 2015;, they are likely to mediate the quality and productivity of writing, especially for emergent writers (Dockrell et al, 2014). A further omission was a fuller exposition of the processes involved in the maintenance of representations (e.g., domain-specific storage) and executive functions (e.g., response inhibition and cognitive flexibility) (Baddeley, 1986;Miyake et al, 2000) which either individually or interactively could contribute to the development of text-based writing skills as children mature and gain experience in associated literacy based tasks (Drijbooms et al, 2015(Drijbooms et al, , 2017. Inclusion of short-term capacity measures of working memory (e.g., digit span) could have provided a clearer indication of whether the poor performance by some children on the verbal working memory task was accounted for primarily by a capacity limitation, or by an immature executive function.…”