The macrostructure of narratives produced by children acquiring Finnish Sign Language.
Heta Pietarinen, Laura Kanto
PMID 40111198WHAT IT FOUND
Narrative skills in Finnish Sign Language children aged 4 to 11 increase with age.
A dip in complexity at age 6 was observed but not explained by hearing status or assessment method. The test is not yet standardized, so scores cannot diagnose impairment.
Key findings
01There is a strong correlation between age and both narrative content (r = .541) and structure (r = .452), with total scores increasing as children get older.
02Narrative complexity appears to dip at age 6 compared to age 5, though the authors state the reason is unclear and may relate to small sample sizes or normal variation.
03The assessment tool (FinSL-PT) is not yet standardized, meaning there are no established norms for each age group to compare individual scores against.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The assessment tool (FinSL-PT) is not standardized, so there are no clinical norms to determine if a score is 'low' or 'high'. The sample size within each age group was small (e.g., only 10 children in the 5 and 6-year-old groups), which may make the observed dip at age 6 a statistical artifact rather than a true developmental pattern. All children were acquiring FinSL in bi- or multilingual contexts, and FinSL was not necessarily their dominant language, which adds variability to the scores. Some assessments were conducted remotely due to the pandemic, which may have affected child performance or interaction, although no significant score differences were found between remote and in-person groups.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was part of a larger research project at the University of Jyväskylä.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the drop in narrative complexity at age 6 as a sign of developmental regression or disorder. The authors note the sample size for this age group was small (10 children), the reason for the dip is unclear, and it did not correlate with hearing status or assessment method. It may simply reflect normal variation in a non-standardized tool.