Results and Discussion High Point Analysis

Abstract

All of the narratives produced by the children were divided into clauses, and the constituent elements identified. For analysis of the overall structure of the children’s narrative, ie. of how their narrative clauses are put together, we selected the three longest narratives produced by each child, since length is correlated with complexity (Brown, 1973). The narratives were independently classified as belonging to one of the previously described patterns by both authors, and agreement on classification was 87%. When there was a disagreement, the narrative was discussed and a consensus reached. The relative frequencies of these patterns across ages is shown in Table 6.