Developing Narrative Structure

Effective narration, the telling of stories or recounting of personal experiences, is an art requiring skills that appear crucial for children's language development and literacy acquisition. This volume serves an important purpose because it pulls together the widely scattered literature in the field, exploring the ways in which oral narrative structure develops in children and how it may be facilitated. It presents new empirical studies on genres of narrative, the role narrative structure plays in emergent literacy, the relationship between narrative language and autobiographical memory, and ways in which teachers and parents facilitate or hinder children's narrative development. The empirical research presented here draws from diverse groups, including Hispanic, African-American, and Anglo-American children from rural and urban America and Canada.

The collection of studies included in Developing Narrative Structure provides educators, researchers, and others interested in narrative development with useful information about children from diverse cultural backgrounds.
—Book Notes

...the volume would be a useful supplement in graduate courses in psychology and education that are focused on development and the role of thought and speech in developmental patterns.
—Contemporary Psychology

Developing Narrative Structure is an edited volume that provides a rich blend of theory, research and perspective related to the narratives of school-age children....The contents of this volume make a compelling argument that the production of narrative is both social and cognitive....there is sufficient coherence across the chapters to make it a valuable edition to advanced undergraduate and graduate courses...The text derives strength from its interdisciplinary focus and accordingly would work well where teaching about integration across disciplines is an important aspect of a course.
—American Scientist