The Influence of Language and Cognitive Skills on Narrative Retelling for Preschoolers with and without Specific Language Impairment

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm relationships between language skills (vocabulary, sentence comprehension), cognitive skills (episodic buffer) and narrative retelling in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI). Methods: A total of 24 children aged 5 to 6 years participated in this study, including SLI (n=8) and TD (n=16). Participants completed a vocabulary test, sentence comprehension test, episodic buffer task, and narrative retelling task. Narratives were analyzed for macrostructure (story grammar). An independent sample t-test was used to examine the difference between groups. And correlation and simple regression analysis was conducted to confirm relationships between narrative retelling and other variables in each group. Results: The SLI group showed significantly lower expressive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, episodic buffer, and narrative retelling skills. In the TD group, there was no significant correlation between narrative retelling skills and other variables. However, a significant correlation was revealed between narrative retelling skills and episodic buffer in the SLI group. Also, the episodic buffer significantly predicted the SLI group’s narrative retelling skills. Conclusion: These results confirmed that narrative retelling requires not just language skills but cognitive skills. Therefore, it is important to consider the role of cognitive skills when planning and implementing intervention for children with SLI. Further studies are required to investigate the likelihood that other language or cognitive skills have an impact on narrative skills.