Title: A case study of the features of oral narratives produced by a small group of children with sensory processing disorder
Description: Research indicates that oral narrative is the discourse form that functions as a bridge between conversational oral language and language skills that contribute to the acquisition of literacy in children (Westby, 1991). Learning to tell stories, therefore, is important to children's literacy development. Mastering extended discourse tasks such as oral narratives is a challenging task for all children (Applebee, 1978; Ochs and Capps, 1996), particularly so for children with underlying developmental impairments. This dissertation consists of two articles: the first is a review of existing studies examining the oral narrative skills of children with three types of neurological challenges; the second is a small-scale, exploratory study of the narratives produced by a group of children with Sensory Processing Disorder, a neurological disorder that is currently garnering much attention in medicine, research, and education. The first article provides context for the second by synthesizing current research that might help us to better understand and anticipate problems in the narrative proficiencies of children with sensory challenges. The second study was an exploratory investigation of the oral narrative competencies of young children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), a neurologically-based disorder from which 5-13% of children entering school suffer. To address the current dearth of information about narratives in this population, my study identified features of oral narratives generated by four children with SPD, compared them to the narratives told by typically developing peers, and examined narrative production across three genres.

This was an intensive study of a small number of cases; it was meant as a first step in identifying characteristics that may be unique to the stories of children with SPD, thus establishing a foundation for future research and possible language interventions for these children. Results indicate that, unlike other children with underlying neurological disorders, children with SPD performed surprisingly well on measures of narrative production. Their stories were comparable to those of their normally developing peers on both the macro and micro levels, including overall coherency, measures of length, and narrative features produced. Differences were observed in the SPD children's behaviors and body control during data collection, but the actual stories produced were very good. This information may be useful to teachers and clinicians in better understanding the academic needs of children with SPD.
Subjects: Sensory integration dysfunction in children, Sensorimotor integration, Language development, Learning disabled children, Learning disabilities