by Sean Sweeney May 28, 2023 2 min read
With the unofficial arrival of the golden months (IMO), it’s time to launch another summer study series. The goal is to provide a digestible view of some current research on intervention and assessment of narrative and expository language. As always, each post will have a tech tie-in and an easy-to-use resource as well.
I actually had to do a double-check on my first meta-analysis blog because the following research was so similar in title to one I reviewed last year! However, it’s great to have another resource due to the publication of this study, Investigating Narrative Performance in Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Winters, Jasso, Pustejovsky & Byrd, 2022). “Thus the story grammar model appears to be a valid representation of how individuals organize story information in order to encode, understand and retrieve stories.”
Nice. Here’s another mention of Story Grammar Marker® by name in peer-reviewed research: “...recent research demonstrates direct instruction in story grammar is an effective method for narrative intervention for school-age children” (e.g., Story Grammar Marker; Pico et al., 2021).
The Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research is more technical than some publications, but I’ve provided some salient points below. Go ahead and add this to your Evidence-Based Practice “binder” and share with colleagues!
For a quick related tech tip, check out the recent additions to resources at Columbia University’s Leaders Project and their School-Age Narrative Assessment Measures (SLAM). These now include preschool activities tapping prediction skills, but which also begin with a basic elicitation of the “story” being pictured, and therefore could be used to identify story grammar use.
Sean Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and technology specialist working in private practice at the Ely Center in Needham, MA, and as a clinical supervisor at Boston University. He consults to local and national organizations on technology integration in speech and language interventions. His blog, SpeechTechie (www.speechtechie.com), looks at technology “through a language lens.” Contact him at sean@speechtechie.com.
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