The Index of Narrative Micro-Structure (INMIS): A Clinical Tool for Analyzing School-Age Children’s Narrative Performance.
Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume
15
Issue
2
Publication Date
2006
First Page
177
Last Page
191
Abstract
PURPOSE: This research was conducted to develop a clinical tool—theIndex of Narrative Microstructure (INMIS)—that would parsimoniouslyaccount for important microstructural aspects of narrative productionfor school-age children. The study provides field test age-and grade-based INMIS values to aid clinicians in making normativejudgments about microstructural aspects of pupils' narrativeperformance.
METHOD: Narrative samples using a single-picture elicitation contextwere collected from 250 children age 5–12 years and thentranscribed and segmented into T-units. A T-unit consists ofa single main clause and any dependent constituents. The narrativetranscripts were then coded and analyzed to document a comprehensiveset of microstructural indices.
RESULTS: Factor analysis indicated that narrative microstructure consistedof 2 moderately related factors. The Productivity factor primarilycomprised measures of word output, lexical diversity, and T-unitoutput. The Complexity factor comprised measures of syntacticorganization, with mean length of T-units in words and proportionof complex T-units loading most strongly. Principal componentsanalysis was used to provide a linear combination of 8 variablesto approximate the 2 factors. Formulas for calculating a student'sperformance on the 2 factors using 8 narrative measures areprovided.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a method for professionals to calculateINMIS scores for narrative Productivity and Complexity for comparisonagainst field test data for age (5- to 12-year-old) or grade(kindergarten to Grade 6) groupings. INMIS scores complementother tools in evaluating a child's narrative performance specificallyand language abilities more generally.
Recommended Citation
Justice, L.M., Bowlels, R., Kadaravek, J.N., *Ukrainetz, T.A., Eisenberg, S.L., & Gillam, R.B. (2006). The index of narrative micro-structure (INMIS): A clinical tool for analyzing schoolage children’s narrative performance. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, (2) 177-191
Comments
Published by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Publisher PDF is available through link above. Publisher requires a subscription to access article.