| Narrative performance and use of adult scaffolding by adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) (N = 15) and typically developing (TD) children matched for syntax comprehension (N = 15) were examined over six retellings of two wordless picture stories. Each participant produced narratives in two conditions, high and low levels of adult scaffolding. In low scaffolding, narrative utterances were produced at two levels of support (1) spontaneously (picture support only), and (2) with encouragements for further story telling; high scaffolding included levels 1 and 2, and an additional level, (3) questions to elicit missing plot line and theme components. Narrative performance was analyzed using five measures in all, three measures of content---Plot line/Theme components, semantic diversity (number of different words---NDW), and narrative length (number of utterances); a measure of linguistic complexity, mean length of utterance (MLU); and, a measure of automaticity of performance, words per minute (WPM).;Overall, the scaffolded storytelling used in this study was associated with increases in Plot line/Theme expression and MLU over time. Measures of narrative content at the spontaneous and encouraged levels were higher in the high scaffold condition than in the low, most likely because of the greater opportunities for talk offered in this condition, rather than the specific type of scaffolding provided. An anticipated shift of questioned content to levels of lesser support over time in the high scaffold condition did not occur. The high scaffold condition was more effective than the low in increasing narrative performance over time only on the measure of semantic diversity (NDW).;The groups did not differ significantly in their use of scaffolding levels in the high condition nor in their expression of the stories' Plot line/Theme in both conditions combined. This finding confirms similarities in conceptual understanding of frog stories, found previously in these groups; and, in a Vygotskyan perspective, it suggests similar potential to improve Plot line/Theme expression. However, the TD group's greater growth in syntactic complexity, semantic diversity and automaticity than the group with DS shows more rapid simultaneous change in multiple domains and integration of change into narrative performance than the group with DS. |
