Narrative Comprehension and Language Skills in Chilean Children with Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

Background and rationale: Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) experience grammatical, phonological and semantic difficulties in oral production. Moreover, their narrative skills may also be affected. Narrative skills are relevant to study in children with SLI as they are tightly linked to reading comprehension. As for comprehension, theoretical models emphasize the importance of vocabulary and grammar, thus these components may affect narrative comprehension in children with SLI. This chapter addresses the following research questions: (a) Are there differences in the narrative comprehension in children with SLI when compared to a control group? (b) Do difficulties in narrative comprehension coexist with lexical and grammatical problems in children with SLI? Method: A total of 13 children with SLI and 13 children with typical development participated in the study. The participants were enrolled in first grade of primary school (mean age = 6.9) and their hearing and non-verbal cognitive skills were found to be within typical ranges. Narrative comprehension was measured using the test 'Prueba para evaluar la comprensión del discurso narrativo', EDNA method (3 questionnaires with literal and inferential questions about 3 stories presented orally). Vocabulary was measured using the test 'Vocabulario sobre dibujos', section 'Language Survey-Revised' (Spanish version). Grammatical was assessed by analyzing the complexity of sentences after retelling 3 stories. Results: No significant differences were found when the scores in the comprehension test were compared (mean SLI = 22,9 (6.1); mean typical development = 26,4 (6.0), 11.48). Significant differences were found, in the second story, when scores were compared (mean SLI = 6,5 (2.8); mean typical development = 9,5 (2.1); 12,5, p 0.002). The significant difference was observed in the inferential questions (mean SLI = 1,7 (1.8); mean typical development = 4,0 (1.7), 12.6, p 0.01). 69% of children with SLI and 38% of children with typical development showed difficulties in comprehending narratives. We found that difficulties in narrative comprehension in children with SLI do not coexist with lexical problems but with grammatical complexity. Few children showed lexical difficulties (15% SLI and 8% typical development). All children with SLI who had lexical difficulties showed poor performance in comprehension and grammatical complexity. Discussion: Results indicated that narrative comprehension is affected in most children with SLI and suggest that difficulties in comprehending narratives are linked to inferential processing. Furthermore, it was also observed that difficulties, on narrative comprehension coexist with difficulties on grammatical complexity. This situation changes when children with SLI have lexical difficulties. This profile was not observed in children with typical development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)