Alice and the Suitcase

This task was specifically created for use by speech-language pathologists and educators to assess the story retelling and comprehension skills of 4- to 7-year-old children. Although the task has not yet been normed, it has been matched to the Ana Gets Lost task for length, complexity, semantic diversity, and story grammar. At this stage there are two versions: Australia and New Zealand. UPDATE Nov 2020: The stories are now in MP4 format as Flash Player is no longer supported. Use the links below to download the tasks - alternatively you can show the story on YouTube - see link below. Please contact me if you would like a version in your own language / dialect. Find the task, a demonstration video, and the protocol below. 

An và cái vali (Alice and the Suitcase - Vietnamese version) 

This task was adapted for use in Vietname / with Vietnamese speaking children. A big thank you to Dr Ben Pham. 
You can download the task (36MB) and the protocol below. You can also show the story on YouTube (link below). 

Ana Gets Lost

Please email m.westerveld@gmail.com. to obtain a copy of the story for free - Australia or New Zealand version. 

This story was used to create databases of samples of typically developing children, ages 4;0 to 7;6, which have been integrated into the SALT software (www.saltsoftware.com).

For information regarding benchmark data (NZ and AU), please refer to:

• TABLE V: Westerveld, M. F., & Gillon, G. T. (2010). Profiling oral narrative ability in young school-aged children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12(3), 178-189. doi: 10.3109/17549500903194125
• TABLE II: Westerveld, M. F., Gillon, G. T., & Boyd, L. (2012). Evaluating the clinical utility of the Profile of Oral Narrative Ability in 4-year-old children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(2), 130-140. doi: 10.3109/17549507.2011.632025

We have also refined our scoring of the story comprehension questions. See this paper for more information (OPEN ACCESS). Find a copy of the full scoring rubric below. 

• Westerveld, M. F., Filiatrault-Veilleux, P., & Paynter, J. (2021). Inferential narrative comprehension ability of young school-age children on the autism spectrum. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 6, 1-13.https://doi.org/10.1177/23969415211035666

NEW (October 2019) Personal Narrative Elicitation App

Here you can download an App to elicit personal narratives (as per the Westerveld & Gillon Language Sampling Protocol - Australian version).

Note: the App only works on a Windows PC or an Android Tablet. See download buttons below.

For Windows PC/Laptop:

• click the download button - this will direct you to a Dropbox folder
• Download the Zip file to your computer (to your downloads folder)
• Right click the zip file and select "extract all" - do not try and open it yet.
• Decide where you want to extract the file to - I would simply choose the downloads folder
• Once extracted, you will end up with a Test folder - if you open the folder you will find the 'Narrative.exe' file.
• Double click the .exe file. It is your decision whether you want to run the file or not.
• you may view the brief video below on how to use the App.

For Tablet. Download the APK file on your tablet. Go to the My Files application and install the App.