Story Knowledge in Preschoolers: A Comprehensive View

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Abstract
The present study investigated what preschool children know about the structure and composition of a story as a literary experience as distinguished from oral discourse for conversational purposes. More specifically, the objective was to gain a comprehensive perspective by analyzing the same set of stories told by preschool children in terms of variables typically observed separately by different investigators. Subjects consisted of 33 three-, four-, and five-year-olds who were asked to retell a familiar story, “The Three Little Pigs.” Transcripts of the resulting stories were analyzed in terms of a) the presence of well-formed story categories; b) structural complexity; c) use of formal story characteristics, and d) construction of a narrative text. Results revealed that age was a poor predictor of story knowledge. Verbal ability was a more potent predictor of performance than age. The data suggest that knowledge of story content precedes knowledge of structure.

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