| This study compared narrative content assessments to explore differences of information offered by each method and to describe differences of oral and written narratives generated by typically developing children. The oral and written narratives of 21 typically developing fourth-
grade children were evaluated using three measures: The Index of Narrative Complexity (INC), Story Level (SL), and Percent of Dyadic Constituents (PDC). All three measures demonstrated a normal distribution, indicating that each offered meaningful descriptive capability. There were no significant correlations between the complexity measures in the oral narratives and only SL and PDC demonstrated significant correlation in the written narratives, indicating fundamental differences in the type of information yielded. Oral narratives scored higher on all measures of complexity and productivity. The results support further research into research to
describe the narratives of a wider age range and to determine whether the methods can be usefully applied to individuals with language impairment. |