Effects of an Individualized Narrative Intervention on Children’s Storytelling and Comprehension Skills

Narrative skills that are important for preschoolers include retelling stories, telling personal stories, and answering questions about stories. Narrative abilities form the foundation of reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individually delivered language intervention on the narrative skills of preschoolers with developmental disabilities. Five preschoolers attending Head Start and participating in special education received 24 sessions of intervention each lasting 10 to 15 min. A multiple baseline, multiple probe experimental design was used to investigate the effects of the intervention, which incorporated visual supports (e.g., icons and pictures) and retell and personal storytelling practice, on story retells, personal stories, and story comprehension. Improvements on all three measures were related to the intervention. Parents and teachers reported that the storytelling activities were engaging, enjoyable, and produced improvements in the children’s language skills.