Ashlie Pankonin

Development of Narrative Perspective in the Preschool Years

Faculty Mentor | Dr. Gigliana Melzi

Narrative perspective—the point of view narrators assume and their ability to shift between these different points of view (Aldrich et al., 2010; O’Neill & Shultis, 2007)–is a skill that might hold important implications for future narrative and literacy skills, but has received relatively little attention. The current study examined the development of narrative perspective across the preschool years and its role in children’s spontaneous narrative production at kindergarten entry. Using narrative data collected at three time points from 23 Latino children from low-income families, narrative perspective (i.e., third person objective and third person subjective perspective) and general narrative abilities were coded. Results showed that children’s inclusion of both objective and subjective narrative perspective increased dramatically over the preschool years. Moreover, the increase in objective perspective was accounted for by increases in narrative length, while the increase in subjective perspective was not. This suggests that the increase in subjective perspective was likely due to developments in other cognitive areas (e.g., theory of mind), rather than linguistic gains. Finally, the frequency of subjective perspective included in the stories produced at the end of the first preschool year predicted children’s general narrative ability at kindergarten entry, highlighting the role of social cognition in successful storytelling. Results are discussed in relation to the unique contributions of language and cognitive processes in the development of children’s narrative skills.