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Narrative Skills of Youth with Down Syndrome: a Comprehensive Literature Review

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Abstract

Given the role that narratives play in organizing experience, as well as their contribution to social interaction and literacy development, children’s narrative skills have received considerable research attention. This paper provides a comprehensive review and thematic analysis of 30 studies conducted over the last three decades on the narrative skills of children and adolescents with Down syndrome. Themes include the global structure of their narratives, narrative comprehension, and use of vocabulary and grammar. The review demonstrates that youth with Down syndrome have basic narrative skills, generally consistent with individuals of the same mental age or language ability, suggesting a delayed rather than an atypical pattern of development. The narrative profile emerging from the review indicates several ways narratives may be facilitated in children and adolescents with Down syndrome. These include a greater focus on personal narratives accompanied by the use of visual supports. The review revealed very few intervention studies, suggesting an important direction for future research.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Research Development Initiative grant (number 820-2008-1036) to the second author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education FG 5150, Concordia University, 1455 boul. de Maisonneuve W., Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Aviva Segal & Diane Pesco

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  1. Aviva Segal
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  2. Diane Pesco
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Correspondence to Aviva Segal.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 2 Personal narrative of a child with DS (as reported in van Bysterveldt et al. 2012, pp. 103–104)
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Segal, A., Pesco, D. Narrative Skills of Youth with Down Syndrome: a Comprehensive Literature Review. J Dev Phys Disabil 27, 721–743 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-015-9441-5

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