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Course Description
Narrative capacity, or the ability to tell or retell a story, is highly predictive of both academic and social success. Further, a child’s storytelling ability is culturally grounded and socially valid to caregivers of children with language delays. Thus, narrative intervention provides a unique opportunity to develop receptive and expressive language skills in a socially valid, naturalistic context. Narrative-based intervention has been shown to increase the length and complexity of story retelling across a variety of at-risk populations, including children with specific language impairment, language delays, and autism spectrum disorder, as well as children from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse backgrounds. Many speech-language pathologists already use narratives to target specific language structures, but the literature demonstrates that children need to understand and use complete story grammar before stories can be leveraged to develop syntactic structures or elements (Spencer and Peterson, 2020). During this presentation, participants will learn about the typical developmental sequence for narratives, as well as the cultural influences of narrative engagement and structure. Then, we will use the literature to develop a framework for developing story grammar. Finally, we will discuss specific principles of narrative intervention to develop storytelling skills and to elicit specific morphosyntactic targets in a naturalistic context. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a case study exercise by listening to three narrative examples and developing a small group intervention plan to meet the language needs of each child.
Learning Objectives
- Participants will explain why storytelling is critical for full participation in social and academic contexts.
- Participants will describe the key elements of narrative-based intervention for developing story grammar and meeting specific morphosyntactic language goals.
- Participants will analyze three narrative samples to create a narrative intervention plan which can be used to meet individual language goals in a school-based, group therapy model.
Agenda
3:30 - 3:55 Introduction and Outcomes
3:35 - 3:45 Narrative Background and Literature Review
3:45 - 4:00 Narrative Structure and Developmental Sequence
4:00 - 4:15 Narrative Intervention Sequence
4:15 - 4:30 Analyze Narrative Samples and Develop Intervention Plan
Speaker Bio
Dr. Kameron C. Carden is an assistant professor and director of clinical education in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Samford University. She has more than 15 years of experience serving young children who are deaf or hard of hearing as a speech-language pathologist and listening and spoken language specialist. As a practitioner, she has taught in oral preschool programs, provided early intervention services, and offered outreach to students and their teachers in public school settings throughout Alabama.
Dr. Carden is a board member of the Division for Communication, Language, and Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DCD) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). She also serves on Alabama’s Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP) and the board of directors for Alabama Hands and Voices as a parent of a child with a hearing difference. Her research interests include complex language development, ecologically valid language assessment practices, and eligibility determination for preschoolers who are deaf or hard of hearing using listening and spoken language.
Speaker Disclosures
Financial—Employed by and receives a salary from Samford University.
Nonfinancial— DCD board member, A.G. Bell certified LSLS
