Volume 15, Number 1, Spring 2020A Description of Self-Generated Narratives from African American Preschoolers AUTHOR(S):
ABSTRACT This study examined macrostructure characteristics of spoken narrative production from self-generated narratives of African American (AA) preschool children as analyzed by the Index of Narrative Complexity (INC; Peterson et al., 2008). Twenty-six children who were enrolled in two full-day Head Start classrooms in a single Head Start building participated in this study. Narratives samples from a prior study were used from an intervention study in which children created picture books and told them to a researcher. The narratives of the children from the control group who did not receive the intervention were collected and analyzed for narrative characteristics. Higher narrative element scores and increased density of narrative elements were noted as indicated by the Index of Narrative Complexity (INC; Peterson et al., 2008) as age groups increased. The results from the current study supports the notion that self-generated narratives may provide children with an opportunity to generate narrative elements independently. Self-generated narratives of AA children may supply a sound context for involving cultural as well as linguistic behaviors that provide less rigidity to storytelling. DOI: DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE
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