Storytelling and narration: complete guide to developing narrative skills

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Storytelling and narration: complete guide to developing narrative skills

Narrative skills are essential for communication, academic learning, and social interactions. Knowing how to tell a story, report an event, or understand a narrative involves many language and cognitive skills. This guide presents the development of storytelling, possible difficulties, and strategies to support children.

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Sequential images, narrative structure supports, connector cards

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What is storytelling?

Storytelling is a form of discourse that recounts a sequence of events, real or fictional, organized over time and linked by causal relationships. Unlike a simple description or enumeration, storytelling implies a structure (beginning, middle, end), characters with intentions and emotions, and a logical sequence of events.

Narrative skills are called upon in many everyday situations: telling about one's day, explaining an incident, understanding a story read, following a movie, writing an essay. They are also strongly linked to academic success and the development of theory of mind.

Components of storytelling

📚 Narrative structure (grammar of storytelling)

A complete story generally includes:

Initial situation: introduction of characters, place, context (Who? Where? When?)
Triggering element: event that disrupts the initial situation (problem)
Events/attempts: actions of the characters to solve the problem
Resolution: conclusion of the problem
Final situation: new state of balance, consequences

Other important components

Cohesion: links between sentences (connectors, pronouns, anaphoric references)
Coherence: logical and temporal organization of events
Internal states: emotions, thoughts, intentions of the characters
Causality: cause-and-effect links between events
Perspective: adopted point of view, maintaining the narrative thread

Development of narrative skills

Age	Characteristics of storytelling
2-3 years	Enumeration of unrelated elements, familiar scripts (bath routine)
3-4 years	Sequences of actions linked by "and then", no clear narrative structure
4-5 years	Beginning of structure with initial situation and events, but resolution often absent
5-6 years	Emerging complete structure, problem and resolution present, first internal states
6-7 years	Structured stories with all elements, varied connectors, explicit causality
7-9 years	Elaborate stories with rich internal states, multiple episodes, perspective
9+ years	Stylistic refinement, complex stories with subplots

Narrative difficulties

Narrative difficulties are common among children with SLD (Specific Language Disorder), ASD, ADHD, or learning disabilities. They can affect the production and/or understanding of stories.

Signs of difficulties in production

Disorganized stories: no clear structure, events in disorder
Omissions: important elements missing (problem, resolution)
Lack of cohesion: few connectors, confusing pronominal references
Absence of internal states: no emotions or intentions of the characters
Poor stories: short, little detail, limited vocabulary
Difficulty in maintaining the theme: digressions, jumping from one topic to another

Signs of difficulties in understanding

Difficulty identifying the main character and the problem
Difficulty inferring implicit information
Confusion in the order of events
Difficulty answering questions about causes and consequences
Misunderstanding of the internal states of the characters

Assessment of storytelling

Types of tasks

Storytelling with sequential images: the child tells a story based on images
Story recall: the child listens to/re-reads a story and then recounts it
Personal experience storytelling: the child recounts a lived event
Story generation: based on a prompt or theme

Analysis criteria

Macrostructure: presence of elements from the grammar of storytelling
Microstructure: cohesion, syntactic complexity, vocabulary
Informative content: quantity and relevance of information
Internal states: mention of emotions and thoughts

Intervention strategies

💡 Key principles

Make explicit the structure of the story (visual supports)
Model: tell quality stories
Support: guide with questions and hints
Progress: from simple (3 images) to complex (long story)
Vary the supports and types of stories

Tools and techniques

Visual structure supports: Use diagrams or pictograms representing the elements of the story (characters, place, problem, actions, ending). The child can refer to them while telling.

Sequential images: Start with 3-4 images, then gradually increase. The child orders the images and then tells the story. The images serve as support for memory and organization.

Connector cards: Provide cards with temporal connectors (first, then, next, finally) and causal connectors (because, then, therefore) to enrich cohesion.

Guided questioning: Ask structuring questions: "Who is the character? Where is he? What is his problem? What does he do? How does it end?"

Co-construction: Tell a story together, alternating turns or completing the child's sentences.

Suggested progression

Familiar scripts (morning routine, going to a restaurant)
Simple stories based on 3-4 sequential images
Stories with a simple problem and resolution
Stories with internal states of characters
Longer stories with multiple episodes
Structured personal experience stories
Independent generation of stories

Our storytelling tools to download

📷 Sequential images

Stories in 3 to 6 images with varying levels of complexity. Various themes.

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📊 Narrative structure support

Visual diagrams of the grammar of storytelling: characters, place, problem, actions, ending.

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🔗 Connector cards

Illustrated temporal and logical connectors to structure the story.

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😊 Internal states cards

Emotions and thoughts of characters to enrich stories.

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Frequently Asked Questions

📌 My 4-year-old child tells stories "that make no sense," is that normal?

Yes, that is still normal at this age. At 4 years old, stories often consist of loosely linked action sequences, without a real narrative structure. The ability to produce organized stories with a problem and resolution emerges around 5-6 years old. However, if stories remain very disorganized after 6 years, an assessment may be useful.

📌 How can I help my child tell their day better?

Avoid overly open questions like "What did you do today?" which are difficult. Prefer specific questions: "Who did you play with at recess? What did you play? What happened?" You can also use photos or the life notebook as support. Tell your own day to model.

📌 Does reading stories help with narrative development?

Absolutely! Shared reading of picture books is one of the best ways to develop narrative skills. It exposes the child to well-structured stories, enriches vocabulary, and allows for discussion about characters, their emotions, and events. Ask questions during and after reading.