Narrative skill and testimonial accuracy in typically developing children and those with intellectual disabilities
Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Applied Cognitive Psychology
Abstract
Children must describe maltreatment coherently for their testimony to be influential
in court. We know little about how well children with intellectual disabilities (CWID)
describe their experiences relative to typically developing (TD) children, despite
CWID's vulnerability to maltreatment. We investigated children's reports of an experienced
event and compared coherence in CWID (mild to moderate impairment: 7–
11 years) with TD children matched for mental (4–10 years) or chronological age
(7–11 years). All children included important markers of narrative coherence in their
reports. Children with lower mental ages, particularly those with an intellectual disability,
included fewer markers of narrative coherence in their reports than children
with higher mental ages. Individual markers of narrative coherence, particularly recall
of content, predicted accuracy of testimony and resistance to suggestion even when
disability and mental age were taken into account. These findings highlight the importance
of helping children to describe their experiences coherently.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
coherence, eyewitness testimony, intellectual disability, narrative quality
Citation
Brown, D. A., Brown, E. J., Lewis, C. N., & Lamb, M. E. (2017). Narrative skill and testimonial accuracy in typically developing children and those with intellectual disabilities. Applied Cognitive Psychology.