Did you know that event knowledge helps predict story comprehension? Maybe this is a surprise to you or maybe this is something many already know. Either way, I came across a journal article using The Informed SLP (I have a paid membership and no affiliate) and wanted to touch on a bit.
How do you know when a child really understands a story? Research suggests that event knowledge is an important component of children’s story comprehension— and one that is often overlooked. This is not surprising as event knowledge involves a ton of vital language skills including vocabulary, grammar, working memory, inference and background knowledge.
Study Predicts Story Comprehension
“Story comprehension is affected by a complex array of underlying skills and facets of knowledge… When a child is struggling, clinicians need a nuanced understanding of the source of the problem in order to target intervention appropriately.”
– Dempsey, 2021
This January 2021 study by Dempsey from Childhood Language and Teaching was looking at story comprehension and event knowledge. It tells us that the strongest predictor of story comprehension was verbal account (telling a story in your own words without pictures). Next was enactment (using props from the story to act it out). Last was sequencing (putting the events of the story in order when given four pictures).
After this study, ideas are given that clinicians can do to increase story comprehension during therapy sessions.
Use Props for Enactment to Increase Story Comprehension
Including props so the child can reenact the story during and after reading is helpful to increasing comprehension. One way that is easy to incorporate this is with sensory bins. This makes it a fun way to use props and helps keep the students engaged.
“Wolf in the Snow” is one of my absolute favorite wordless picture books. It can also be the perfect book to access student’s comprehension of the story. Using props in a sensory bin with this story is lots of fun.
Sensory bin materials:
{These are all affiliate links, which simply means that I make a small commission for recommending these items to you. The item does NOT cost you any more money.}
Artic animals Toob for small wolf pack
Sugar and small marshmallows
When you are creating your sensory bin, try to use what you already have in the supply closet. With the sensory bin, I use story pieces to retell the story. We make up our own dialogue to match the story. Some of my youngest students are working on pronouns so we pair actions and sentences that include pronouns. We can work on following directions and use carrier phrases that include our speech sounds as well. There are ALWAYS tons of skills you can work on using a sensory bin which is why I LOVE to incorporate them into sessions. You can read more about the Wolf in the Snow Sensory Bin and Book Activities in this blog post.
Incorporate Easy Retells for Students
One way to check for student’s background knowledge is with the Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do Activity. This is one way to set students up for success for a retell.
Another story that is great for both an easy retell and enactment is The Three Little Pigs. There are so many fun props you can use for an easy retell!
Finally, There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a____ books and companions make the perfect easy retells. Using the story pieces to “feed” the old lady can help us reenact with the story props as well.
What about Sequencing?
So what about sequencing? Should we even be working on this? The authors suggest that sequencing provides an idea of the child’s ability to recognize and order a particular set of events. This task does not force the child to think deeply into the story and generate their own words or actions. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be useful. It just means that it may not require as deep of an understanding of the story compared to other measures.
Instead of sequencing, try using an all-encompassing resource such as a book companion for follow up comprehension activities. For example, the Trashy Town: Speech & Language Book Companion is just that. Simply grab the book by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha. Print all resources and use with the book for speech therapy services. A google slides version is also included if you need it.
Conclusion of the Study
Of course, this is just one study and used typically developing preschoolers, so make your clinical decisions based on the needs of the individual child.
Tell me-did you know that event knowledge helps predict story comprehension?
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