Skip to main content
Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Tell Me What Happened: Validation of a Measurement Tool to Assess Kindergarten Children’s Oral Narrative Ability Cover

Tell Me What Happened: Validation of a Measurement Tool to Assess Kindergarten Children’s Oral Narrative Ability

Open Access
|Jun 2026

References

  1. Babayiğit, S., Roulstone, S., & Wren, Y. (2021). Linguistic comprehension and narrative skills predict reading ability: A 9-year longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 148168. 10.1111/bjep.12353
  2. Bachmann, T., & Feilke, H. (Eds.). (2014). Werkzeuge des Schreibens: Beiträge zu einer Didaktik der Textprozeduren (1. Aufl). Fillibach bei Klett.
  3. Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  4. Boudreau, D. (2008). Narrative abilities: Advances in research and implications for clinical practice. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2), 99114. 10.1097/01.TLD.0000318932.08807.da
  5. Bowles, R. P., Justice, L. M., Khan, K. S., Piasta, S. B., Skibbe, L. E., & Foster, T. D. (2020). Development of the narrative assessment protocol-2: A tool for examining young children’s narrative skill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51(2), 390404. 10.1044/2019_LSHSS-19-00038
  6. Carlson, S. M. (2017). Minnesota Executive Function Scale: Technical report. Reflection Sciences, LLC.
  7. Carlson, S. M., & Zelazo, P. D. (2014). Minnesota Executive Function Scale: Technical manual. Reflection Sciences.
  8. Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464504. 10.1080/10705510701301834
  9. Engel, S. L. (1995). The stories children tell: Making sense of the narratives of childhood. W.H. Freeman.
  10. Feagans, L., & Applebaum, M. I. (1986). Validation of language subtypes in learning disabled children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 358364. 10.1037/0022-0663.78.5.358
  11. Feilke, H. (2014). Argumente für eine Didaktik der Textprozeduren. In T. Bachmann & H. Feilke (Eds.), Werkzeuge des Schreibens. Beiträge zu einer Didaktik der Textproze-duren. (1., pp. 1134). Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH.
  12. Gardner-Neblett, N., & Iruka, I. U. (2015). Oral narrative skills: Explaining the language-emergent literacy link by race/ethnicity and SES. Developmental Psychology, 51(7), 889904. 10.1037/a0039274
  13. Gardner-Neblett, N., Pungello, E. P., & Iruka, I. U. (2012). Oral narrative skills: Implications for the reading development of African American children. Child Development Perspectives, 6(3), 218224. 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00225.x
  14. Guenole, N., & Brown, A. (2014). The consequences of ignoring measurement invariance for path coefficients in structural equation models. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00980
  15. Hausendorf, H., & Quasthoff, U. M. (1996). Diskurserwerb im Spannungsfeld zwischen Interaktion und Entwicklung: Einführung in die Thematik. In H. Hausendorf & U. M. Quasthoff (Eds.), Sprachentwicklung und Interaktion (pp. 39). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. 10.1007/978-3-663-11463-5_1
  16. Hsiao, Y.-Y., & Lai, M. H. C. (2018). The impact of partial measurement invariance on testing moderation for single and multi-level data. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00740
  17. Isler, D., Hefti, C., Kirchhofer, K., & Dinkelmann, I. (2018). Entwicklung eines Instruments zur Einschätzung mündlicher Textfähigkeiten bei Kindergartenkindern. 21.
  18. Isler, D., & Ineichen, G. (2016). Gespräche im Kindergarten – Erwerbskontexte schulisch-bildungssprachlicher Fähigkeiten. In Frühe sprachliche und literale Bildung. Sprache lernen und fördern im Kindergarten und zum Schuleintritt (pp. 8096). Narr.
  19. Janssen, L., Scheper, A., & Vissers, C. (2024). Controlling the narrative: The relationship between narrative ability and executive functioning in children with developmental language disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1489997
  20. Justice, L., Bowles, R., Pence, K., & Gosse, C. (2010). A scalable tool for assessing children’s language abilities within a narrative context: The NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol). 10.1016/J.ECRESQ.2009.11.002
  21. Koo, T. K., & Li, M. Y. (2016). A guideline of selecting and reporting intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability research. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(2), 155163. 10.1016/j.jcm.2016.02.012
  22. Little, T. D. (2013). Longitudinal structural equation modeling (pp. xxii, 386). Guilford Press.
  23. McCabe, A., & Peterson, C. (Eds.). (1991). Developing Narrative Structure. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  24. McDonald, R. P. (1999). Test Theory: A Unified Treatment. Psychology Press. 10.4324/9781410601087
  25. Meng, K., Rehbein, J., & Vygotskiĭ, L. S. (2007). Kindliche Kommunikation: Einsprachig und mehrsprachig: mit einer erstmals auf Deutsch publizierten Arbeit von Lev. S. Vygotskij ‘Zur Frage nach der Mehrsprachigkeit im kindlichen Alter’. Waxmann.
  26. Meredith, W. (1993). Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. Psychometrika, 58, 525543. 10.1007/BF02294825
  27. Milosky, L. M. (1987). Narratives in the classroom. Seminars in Speech and Language, 8, 329343.
  28. Mozzanica, F., Ambrogi, F., Salvadorini, R., Sai, E., Pozzoli, R., Barillari, M. R., Scarponi, L., & Schindler, A. (2016). The relationship between socioeconomic status and narrative abilities in a group of italian normally developing children. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica: Official Organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), 68(3), 134140. 10.1159/000452443
  29. Petersen, D. B., Mesquita, M. W., Spencer, T. D., & Waldron, J. (2020). Examining the effects of multitiered oral narrative language instruction on reading comprehension and writing: A Feasibility Study. Topics in Language Disorders, 40(4), E25. 10.1097/TLD.0000000000000227
  30. Petersen, D. B., & Spencer, T. D. (2016). CUBED Assessment (Narrative Language Measures & Dynamic Decoding Measures). Language Dynamics Group. https://www.languagedynamicsgroup.com/cubed-assessment-download/
  31. Petersen, D. B., Staskowski, M., Spencer, T. D., Foster, M. E., & Brough, M. P. (2022). The effects of a multitiered system of language support on kindergarten oral and written language: A large-scale randomized controlled trial. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(1), 4468. 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-20-00162
  32. Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: The state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review: DR, 41, 7190. 10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.004
  33. R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
  34. Reese, E., Sparks, A., & Suggate, S. (2011). Assessing children’s narratives. In Research Methods in Child Language: A Practical Guide (pp. 133148). 10.1002/9781444344035.ch9
  35. Revelle, W. (2021). psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research (Version 2.1.9) [Computer software]. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych
  36. Rosseel, Y. (2012). lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 136. 10.18637/jss.v048.i02
  37. Roth, F. P. (2009). Children’s early narratives. In Emergent literacy and language development: Promoting learning in early childhood (pp. 153191). The Guilford Press.
  38. Schönberger, J., Sticca, F., Hefti, C., & Isler, D. (2025). Relationship between narrative ability and executive functions: A longitudinal study in kindergarten classrooms. Cognitive Development, 76, 101635. 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101635
  39. Scionti, N., Zampini, L., & Marzocchi, G. M. (2023). The relationship between narrative skills and executive functions across childhood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 10(8), 1391. 10.3390/children10081391
  40. Snow, C. E., & Dickinson, D. K. (1991). Skills that aren’t basic in a new conception of literacy. In Literate systems and individual lives: Perspectives on literacy and schooling (pp. 179191). State University of New York Press.
  41. Spencer, T. D., & Pierce, C. (2023). Classroom-based oral storytelling: Reading, writing, and social benefits. The Reading Teacher, 76(5), 525534. 10.1002/trtr.2144
  42. Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing. (2014). https://www.aera.net/Publications/Books/Standards-for-Educational-Psychological-Testing-2014-Edition
  43. Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M., & Baumgartner, H. (1998). Assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(1), 7890. 10.1086/209528
  44. Suggate, S., Schaughency, E., McAnally, H., & Reese, E. (2018). From infancy to adolescence: The longitudinal links between vocabulary, early literacy skills, oral narrative, and reading comprehension. Cognitive Development, 47, 8295. 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.04.005
  45. Thorndyke, P. W. (1977). Cognitive structures in comprehension and memory of narrative discourse. Cognitive Psychology, 9(1), 77110. 10.1016/0010-0285(77)90005-6
  46. Trabasso, T., Stein, N. L., Rodkin, P. C., Park Munger, M., & Baughn, C. R. (1992). Knowledge of goals and plans in the on-line narration of events. Cognitive Development, 7(2), 133170. 10.1016/0885-2014(92)90009-G
  47. Westerveld, M. F., & Vidler, K. (2016). Spoken language samples of Australian children in conversation, narration and exposition. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 288298. 10.3109/17549507.2016.1159332
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/spo.79 | Journal eISSN: 2752-5341
Language: English
Page range: 2 - 2
Submitted on: Mar 12, 2024
Accepted on: May 28, 2026
Published on: Jun 10, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Judith Schönberger, Fabio Sticca, Dieter Isler, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.