This thesis consists of a theoretical part, in which the age of the tested children is defined, and it is explained that only the characteristics of this developmental phase would be discussed. The paper then describes the characteristics of children's speech at an early childhood stage with the general speech competences that a four-year-old should have, stressing that these are normative patterns and that at this age, individual differences between children can be large. Furthermore, the topic of storytelling, its importance to the individual and the society is discussed, connecting it also with the theory of mind. Additionally, it is discussed that storytelling can be used as an experiment with which we can later assess the child's speech ability and observe his pragmatic ability, with a special attention to cartoon summarizing, as there has been no research into children’s narrative in this field in Slovenia. Topics such as storytelling of one’s own experience and the connection between the memory and the storytelling are also mentioned in the paper. Moreover, the thesis presents the narrative as one of the possibilities for assessing the child's speech ability, mentioning concrete Slovenian research in this field.
In the practical part, first the research problem is defined, stating that the research would concentrate on two children, who would first tell the story about what they saw in a chosen cartoon and later be given two introductory sentences from which they would continue with their own narrations. After a few weeks, the test would be repeated with another cartoon and other introductory sentences. The research examines the differences between the two narratives of the two children with regards to coherence and cohesion on the one hand and compares the linguistic levels of the first and the second attempt at storytelling on the other. Furthermore, the research pattern and the method are described, and the narratives of the children are evaluated and interpreted.
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