Patterns of Narrative Discourse: A Multicultural, Life Span Approach

Patterns of Narrative Discourse: A Multicultural, Life Span Approach educates professionals about the features of narrative discourse from a multicultural perspective. The authors seek to prevent misdiagnoses of cultural differences as deficits. The importance of narratives for children and adults is presented with respect to literacy, education, law and medicine. Narratives from children with typical and impaired discourse development are described regarding the following cultures: European North American, African American, Spanish-speaking communities, and Asian Americans. Adult narratives are also presented from speakers with typical and impaired discourse from different cultural backgrounds. Assessment, intervention and educational considerations that take into account multicultural backgrounds are presented. This book is intended for speech-language pathologists, early childhood specialists, elementary and high school educators, as well as students in these disciplines.

A must have resource for those dealing with typical and impaired language development!

• Narratives spoken by children from different cultures with typical impaired language development are included in separate chapters.
• Narratives spoken by adults with typical and impaired language behavior
• Narrative Assessment Profiles throughout the book enable the reader to analyze adult and child narratives from a multidimensional perspective that considers the cultural background of the speaker.