Study & Application Article Summary/ Reaction COM 380 March 19, 2014

Comparative Analysis Of Childrens Narratives at Different Ages Rationale for Study: This study aimed to investigate how children 6-11 years of age integrate linguistic, prosodic, and kinesics resources into organized discourse behaviors such as oral narratives. The study also focused on figuring out how and when children become genuine narrators. The study found that the gestural system associated with speech undergoes considerable development. In other words, the use of gestures, postures and facial expressions directly linked to speech should vary with age and should develop as the child acquires new cognitive and linguistic abilities. Hypothesis: It was the researchers expectation that, in the development of narrative behavior, they should observe a progressive diversification and increasing complexity of the verbal, vocal and kinesics modalities as these are used in the construction of narratives. Methods: The methods used for this study were data derived from a corpus of 7 hours of video recordings of children engaged in conversation during a semi directed interview with an adult. There were a total of 60 children filmed in groups of 3 same age pupils. Each interview lasted 15-20 minutes. The main purpose of these interviews was to elicit explanations and verbal reasoning from the children Results: There were two sets of observations: first, the detailed analysis of three event reports produced by some of the older children, chosen for their exemplary value; second, a comparative study of all the event reports collected, within a developmental perspective. The study of the nine- and ten-year-old childrens event reports confirmed the relevance that development of oral discourse behavior in children demands a multimodal perspective which takes account of the prosodic and kinesics aspects of this behavior in addition to its linguistic aspects. Discussion: It was evident through the study that childrens form of non verbals through narration grow as they age older. In the studies of younger children it was more difficult to comprehend their gestures along with their conversation. Gestures became more distinct for older children as they figure out more of a reason behind their gesture through the narration. Reflection: It is definitely true that we become more distinct in our gestures as we grow because it is apart of our nature to develop things better. What was most interesting about the study is how quick children reflect what they see through gestures from adult figures in their life and how they apply these gestures through narration or conversation.

Application: Students will be able to watch an impactful and memorable video of a young boy name Maeto who does an incredible job of mimicking gestures that he have learned through observing and how he apples these gestures through conversation with his mom.