Evaluation of preschool children's language skills through narrative

Aim : The aim of this study was to evaluate the language skills of preschool children through narrative . Method: The study consisted of 100 children with normal hearing in the preschool age group of 4-6 years old who applied to the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ege University Hospital. In the study, Turkish Early Language Development Test (TEDIL) was used to evaluate the receptive and expressive verbal language skills of children, and The Edmorton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI) storytelling tool was used to assess language skills. OSU (Mean Word Length), FSÖZS (Number of Different Words), TSÖZS (Total Words) were examined in the language samples taken from the narrative analysis. Results: A total of 100 children, 50 in the age group of 48-60 months and 50 in the age group of 61-72 months were included in the study. The mean scores of TEDİL Receiver Language Standard Scores of 48-60 months old children were 98.82 ± 9.08, and the mean Expressive Language Standard Scores were 97.02 ± 6.63. The mean of the TEDIL Receiver Language Standard scores of 61-72 months old children was 103.46 ± 8.24, and the mean Expressive Language Standard scores were 99.34 ± 8.24. When the story scores of children were compared according to age groups, it was found that mean number of different words (FSÖZS) and total number of words (TSÖZS) were higher in children in 61-72 months group and the difference was statistically significant (p <. 05). It was found that the mean word length (OSU) was higher in children in the 61-72 month group compared to 48-60 month old children, but the difference was not statistically significant. A positive correlation was found between OSU, FSÖZS, TSÖZS scores obtained from history transplantation and age (p <.05). It was observed that as the age increased, the narration also increased. There was no significant correlation between TEDIL and OSU, FSÖZS and TSÖZS scores. When one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was examined between mother education level and TEDIL and OSU, FSÖZS, TSÖZS scores, no significant relationship was found. Conclusion: According to the results obtained from the evaluation of the language skills made for children between the ages of 48-60 and 61-72 months, it was found that girls had higher story production abilities than the boys, and in the age group, children between the ages of 61-72 months were more likely than the children of 48-60 months. It was seen that there were developmental differences in FSÖZS and TSÖZS in the stories of children among the ages of 6 , 61-72 months. It has been revealed that ENNI narrative tool can be used as a language assessment tool in the assessment of language skills in preschool children.