Levels of Story-Telling Skills in Children

Many times I am told "My child can't tell a story" or "this student can tell stories."
To get good information on narrative skills, the question is: at what level?
There are specific, sequenced levels to story-telling. They boil down to this:

1. Descriptive
2. Action Sequence
3. Reactive Sequence
4. Abbreviated Episode
5. Complete Episode
5a. Multiple Episodes
6. Complex Episode
7. Embedded Episode
8. Interactive Episode

So the question is not can my child tell a story, it is: at what level, and with what kind of help?

Here is one good resource for teaching narratives using trade picture books: East Meets West: Using Children's Books as a Clinical Intervention for Language and Reading Disabilities

Storytelling and Child's Play

In the mail today I got a pamphlet for a continuing ed seminar on child's play and language as the basis for literacy. The Roots of Literacy - presented by Carol Westby

Did you ever listen in on a young child's pretend play? It can tell you a lot about language and cognitive development. They are creating narratives, and working out their own concepts and conflicts. And narratives are the basis for literacy. Talking during pretend-play is really an early reading activity.

Come to think of it, as adults we are still trying to figure life out through narratives. That's why we love storytelling, movies and novels. And that's why we have a "story" to our own lives.

It's more than escape.