The power of stories: Effects on child
development and learning

Supervisor: Dr Sebastian Suggate

A) Rationale for the project

Stories, both personal and historical narratives, not only form and consolidate our identities as human beings and connect us socially, they are also a potentially powerful way of acquiring language and literacy skills alongside other types of subject-specific learning. Much work exists on shared-book reading, but little research exists on the effect of free story telling. Free story telling can prove more captivating and inspiring for children, possibly augmenting their learning experiences. New approaches (e.g., digital story telling) seek to captivate listeners using multimedia methods, also aiming to improve learning. Many questions, however, remain unanswered.

B) References that should be read

Lenhart, J., Lenhard, W., Vaahtoranta, E., & Suggate, S. (2020). More than words: Narrator engagement during storytelling increases children’s word learning, story
comprehension, and on-task behavior. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 51, 338–351.

Noble, C., Sala, G., Peter, M., Lingwood, J., Rowland, C., Gobet, F., & Pine, J. (2019). The impact of shared book reading on children’s language skills: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 28, 100290.

Suggate, S., Schaughency, E., McAnally, H., & Reese, E. (2018). From infancy to
adolescence: The longitudinal links between vocabulary, early literacy skills, oral
narrative, and reading comprehension. Cognitive Development, 47, 82–95.

Suggate, S. P., Lenhart, J., Vaahtoranta, E., & Lenhard, W. (2021). Interactive elaborative storytelling fosters vocabulary in pre-schoolers compared to repeated-reading and phonemic awareness interventions. Cognitive Development, 57, 100996.

C) Research aims and questions

You will use quantitative methods (potentially supplemented with qualitative methods) to develop and or test the effects of stories have as vehicles for transmitting rich human experiences to positively influence child development. Foci could be on (a) evaluating literacy and language, social cognition, or engagement and immersion, (b) professional development to help teachers (or parents) use stories in educational settings, or (c) using stories to support learners with different needs and backgrounds.

D) Methods

Good scientific practice dictates that the methodology should arise out of the research question (not the other way around), however, methods I am comfortable supervising include studies in educational settings, experiments, interventions, longitudinal/cross sectional studies, online studies, interviews, literature reviews and meta-analyses.