Effects of Pictures Versus Orally Presented Stories on Story Retellings by Children With Language Impairment

Narratives can be a useful clinical assessment tool, but some thought must be given to the type of stimuli used to elicit them. For the current study, children with language impairments (ages 5;7–9;9) told stories from pictures, retold orally presented stories, and retold stories presented both orally and pictorially. Within-subjects comparisons showed that the best stories (in terms of complete episodes and number of information units) were produced when children listened to stories without pictures. The stories containing the least story grammar information and the greatest extraneous information, but with the fewest indicators of formulation load (mazes), were produced when children viewed the pictures without hearing an oral version. Implications for choice of narrative stimuli are discussed.