Repositori Digital de la UPF
Repositori Digital de la UPF
Narrative skills are considered a crucial milestone in children’s development and are regarded as both predictors and precursors of later linguistic skills, literacy, and social skills. Consequently, numerous educational and clinical interventions have been designed to foster children’s narrative development. Despite evidence suggesting a strong connection between multimodality, language, and cognition, few oral
narrative interventions have systematically incorporated multimodality (i.e., story enactment) as a strategy to promote narrative learning in children with typical development (TD) and neurodevelopmental
disorders (NDD). The overarching objective of this doctoral
dissertation is to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal narrative-based intervention for boosting the oral
narrative abilities of children with TD and NDD. The key components of this nine-session intervention are its multimodal approach, its multitiered design, its naturalistic implementation by professionals, and its focus on both narrative macrostructure and perspective-taking.
The present PhD thesis comprises five different studies revolving around the overarching aim of developing, implementing and evaluating the novel multi-tiered MultiModal Narrative (MMN) intervention program. The thesis follows an implementation science approach involving two intertwined evidence-based phases: a pre-implementation phase (Studies 1–3) to gather both scientific evidence and professional
practice to develop and preliminarily evaluate the MMN intervention, and an implementation phase (Studies 4–5) to assess the MMN intervention’s effectiveness in a clinical and educational context.
Within the pre-implementation phase, Study 1 demonstrated that multimodal skills, but not motor skills, were predictive of complex linguistic (narrative and pragmatics) skills in a cohort of 139 children with TD and NDD. Study 2 involved a co-creation participatory process with stakeholders that systematically analyzed the needs and
practices of 93 teachers and speech-language therapists. This cocreation process served to develop the MMN intervention as a multitiered evidence-based intervention, bridging the gap between research and practice. Study 3 reported that the MMN intervention was deemed
feasible by a group of 41 professionals and that, after conducting a pilot study with 51 children with TD and NDD, it was effective for boosting their oral narrative abilities. The implementation phase involved two intervention studies testing the effectiveness of the MMN intervention. Study 4 tested the MMN intervention in a clinical speech-language pathology context involving 50 children. The results showed that NDD
children’s oral narrative skills improved significantly throughout and
after the intervention period. Study 5 showed that the MMN
intervention implemented in a classroom setting with 115 children was effective for boosting oral narrative skills, and that an overly active implementation of multimodality might have affected children’s concentration.
Overall, the findings of the present thesis provide evidence of the robust effectiveness of the two tiers of the MMN intervention program
for boosting children’s oral language. Thus the MMN intervention program constitutes the first evidence-based validated narrative intervention in the Catalan language. The thesis underscores the significance of integrating research evidence and professional practice in designing and implementing intervention programs, as this approach ensures that the intervention is tailored to the specific real-life implementation context and maximizes its impact and effectiveness. This PhD thesis has culminated in the creation of a digitalized version of the MMN intervention, accessible through the StoryTIC website that encompasses not only the intervention materials but also training resources for professionals. All in all, this PhD thesis has addressed
current social challenges related to the improvement of oral language in young children and has contributed to the educational and clinical
practices for children with typical development and
neurodevelopmental disorders.
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2025-06-18T11:11:14Z) Florit-Pons, Júlia; Prieto Vives, Pilar; Igualada, Alfonso; Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament de Traducció i Ciències del llenguatge
