Precursors of narrative ability: an in-depth study of three Dutch children

This study examines nonpresent talk (NPT) in early parent-child interaction and its relation to later narrative ability. It analyses data obtained from a longitudinal study of three children in two monolingual Dutch families.
A longitudinal design combined analyses of spontaneous interaction between age 1;9 and 3;9 and experimental data when the children were seven years old. Narrative ability was assessed focusing on three components: narrative productivity, narrative story structure and narrative complex language. The results of the study show that the child who was engaged the most in NPT, scored highest on narrative productivity. Other potential precursors were found in child behaviour such as: initiating NPT by the child, fast tense marking development and topic elaboration and were related to the other components. The present study draws therefore attention to child factors relating to later narrative ability. Most previous research focused on parental factors influencing narrative ability. However, child factors may be equally important. Future research has to further explore the potential precursors that were suggested by this study.