Narrative skills refer to telling a story or series of events. This is an important type of communication we use every day.  For instance, children use narratives when they tell you what happened at school, tell an adult about an incident that happened, discuss a topic with you or when they make plans about the weekend.When you ask your child what they did at school, this requires the child to remember what happened, sequence the events, include the details, and express their thoughts in grammatically correct sentences. This is a complex skill and some children may have difficulty conveying their ideas.

Children with difficulty conveying their ideas may present with some of the following in their narratives:

– use shorter sentences

– include little details

– provide details without giving background information

– include irrelevant details

– may jump around within the story and story may not be coherent

Difficulties with narratives can create challenges for the child when he/she is participating in conversations, telling a story or even when completing their written work in school. As children get older, they transfer their narrative skills to their written work.  So it is important children have good narrative ability so they are confident to write a good story.

Speech therapists can help children develop their narrative skills by using visuals and help them explicitly understand all the story elements (e.g.: who, where, when, first/next/last). This will help them succeed in school and in social situations.

Written by Tasneem Abdul Samad, Speech Pathologist.