Abstract

Narrative production in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) may be poor, and that deficit could impact their school performance. There is scarce information regarding the features of the narrative deficit in Spanish-speaking children with SLI. Consequently, the aim of this work is to study the structure and the semantic relations (causal and temporal) of the oral narrations produced by first grade children with SLI. Twenty children with an SLI diagnose were recruited, together with 19 children with no language impairment. Mean age for both groups were 6 years, 7 months. Narrative discourse was elicited through the retelling of three stories. Narratives were analyzed for structural categories and semantic relations (causal and temporal relations between the events). Results showed that children with SLI structured their stories poorly when compared to the control group. In addition, a significant percentage of children with SLI showed deficits in the structure of their stories. Moreover, children with SLI used fewer causal relations than the control group. However, the amount of temporal relations was similar in both groups. Finally, a significant correlation between structure and content of narrative discourse was found.