Developmental Patterns of Children’s Story Grammar according to Age and Type of Narrative

Objectives: This study examined the developmental patterns of story grammar in typically developing children, focusing on age and type of narrative.Methods: Participants were 508 children aged 4 to 12 years from both domestic and overseas regions. The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) and a vocabulary test were administered. A three-way mixed ANOVA was conducted to analyze differences in story grammar scores by age, type of narrative, and type of story grammar elements.Results: Children demonstrated significantly higher story grammar scores in the retelling condition than in the generation condition. Scores across story grammar elements showed significant variation, with outcome and attempt being the most frequently produced, followed by goal, initiating event, reaction, and setting. Interaction effects were significant among age, type of narrative, and story grammar elements. Overall, story grammar scores increased with age, with clear developmental differences observed between preschool and early school years. In particular, retelling facilitated higher performance in younger children, while differences diminished among older children. Conclusion: The findings suggest that narrative construction in children is shaped by the interaction of linguistic and cognitive growth with task demands. The transition from preschool to school age represents a critical period for the development of story grammar, with retelling providing scaffolding that supports narrative performance. Furthermore, the earlier emergence of concrete elements (outcome, attempt) compared to abstract elements (goal, setting) highlights the role of early cognitive and linguistic abilities in advancing narrative skills.