| The present study investigated the impact of wordless animated story stimuli versus static
story stimuli on the quality of narratives told by school-aged children with language and literacy
impairments (LLI). Participants (N=14) with LLI from 9 to 13 years of age viewed animated
story stimuli and static story stimuli followed by a story-retelling task. The children’s narrative
language samples were transcribed, analyzed, and scored for various aspects including
productivity, accuracy, complexity, and macrostructure elements. The results demonstrated no
differences in narrative performance across the story conditions, suggesting that without a verbal
model of the stories, the children were unable to realize any potential benefits from animated
story stimuli in their expressive narratives. This is likely due to their language challenges. Future
research with children with LLI should explore whether animated stimuli may positively impact
the quality of their narratives when also accompanied by a verbal model.
Keywords: Developmental language disorder, dyslexia, language and literacy impairment,
narrative language, animation. |