Improving narrative skills in young children with delayed language development

A substantial number of 5-7 year old children experience delayed language development which threatens their progress in school, although they have not been placed on speech and language therapy caseloads. Children with delayed language development typically have a limited ability to understand and tell stories. Intervention to develop the oral narratives of these children can significantly improve their ability to understand and tell stories. This development improves their ability to participate in, and benefit from, mainstream classroom activities. We report on a style of intervention which aims to achieve these objectives. The intervention applies a story grammar approach through a collaboration between teachers, learning support assistants and speech and language therapists. The intervention took place in UK schools with a high proportion of children from families with low socio-economic status and this article reports significant improvements in the quality of these children's story-telling.