Story Presentation Effects on Children’s Retell Content

This study investigated the possibility that the amount of content children include in their stories is affected by how stories are presented. Simple stories were presented to kindergarten and Grade 2 children in 3 conditions: orally (oral only), pictorially (pictures only), and combined oral and pictures. The kindergarteners recalled more content in the combined condition than in pictures, only. The 2nd graders recalled more content in the oral only and combined conditions than in pictures only. The grades differed in both conditions involving oral presentation, but not in the pictures only condition. Thus, children in both grades provided more story information when they retold a story presented orally than when they told the story from pictures alone.