What is creative in childhood writing? Computationally measured linguistic characteristics explain much of the variance in subjective human-rated creativity scores

The present study investigated the extent to which linguistic features of children's stories (analysed using automated techniques), predicted human-rated Creative Expressiveness and Logic scores (both assessed with the Consensual Assessment Technique). A sample of 160 children (Mage = 8.99 years, SD = 0.3) wrote stories based on three pictures. Eleven linguistic characteristics were measured: Length, Grammar, Originality, Controlled Lexical Diversity, Uncontrolled Lexical Diversity, Divergent Semantic Integration (DSI), Referential Cohesion, Narrativity, Syntactic Simplicity, Word Concreteness and Deep Cohesion. The results showed that 51 % of the variance in Creative Expressiveness was explained by Length, DSI, Originality, Grammar, and Controlled Lexical Diversity ( sr 2 = 0.01 to 0.14). In comparison, 28 % of the variance in Logic scores was accounted for by DSI, Grammar, Controlled Lexical Diversity, Syntactic Simplicity, and Narrativity ( sr 2 = 0.01 to 0.06). These findings offer insights for educational practices by identifying the linguistic characteristics relevant to children's creative writing as opposed to logical narration. • A study on human-rated creativity and computationally measured linguistic characteristics in childhood stories. • Five linguistic characteristics (length, grammar, originality, lexical diversity, DSI) predicted creativity scores. • Story length and DSI scores (ability to connect divergent ideas) were the strongest predictors of creativity scores. • To enhance creative content in storytelling, children could be guided to use diverse language. • Automated measures can complement human creativity ratings but not replace them entirely.