Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument (ERRNI)

D Bishop

The ERRNI assesses the ability to relate, comprehend and remember a story after a delay. It provides a rich source of information about children's narrative skills.

 How does it work?

Two parallel forms are each linked to a sequenced story of 15 scenes. Retell of The Beach Story or The Fish Story is recorded with and without visual cues and a series of comprehension questions are completed. Samples are then transcribed and analysed. The parallel forms allow for retesting while minimising practice effect.

 National UK norms are provided on the following measures:

• Information indicating how much relevant story content is provided
• Complexity of grammatical structure
• Comprehension of the pictured narrative

• Forgetting which reflects storage of information in long term memory.

The sample provides useful material for qualitative analysis of syntactic structure, hesitation phenomena and cohesion.

The lack of ceiling effects gives good discrimination throughout the age range. Detailed training examples are provided for transcriptions and coding. The clear colour artwork is suitable for all age groups.