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Story Retelling Skills In 4-Year-Olds With Histories Of Normal And Delayed Language Development, Rita Louise Smith

Dissertations and Theses

There is a growing group of researchers who believe that narrative skills are the bridge from oral language to literacy (Culatta, Page, & Ellis, 1983; Roth & Spekman, 1989; Westby, 1989). Narrative production requires higher level language skills to create a cohesive discourse unit using decontextualized language. Narrative ability has also been found to be the best predictor for normal speech and language development for preschoolers with language impairments (Bishop & Edmundson, 1987) and reading comprehension achievement for learning-disabled, school-age children (Feagans & Applebaum, 1986) . These same skills are prerequisites for achievement of literacy and school success.

The purpose …