09/03/2026
Congratulations to our doctoral student, Rainy, for presenting preliminary findings from her new scoping review project at the 2026 School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences PhD Retreat during the Student Data Blitz! 📈
Her project “Narrative Performance in Mandarin-Speaking Children: A Scoping Review,” aims to summarize research from around the world on how Mandarin-speaking children tell stories, which is an important language skill. After searching nine research databases, she identified 49 studies that included Mandarin-speaking children and assessed some aspect of their narrative abilities.
One exciting and encouraging takeaway is that narrative skills in Mandarin-speaking children have been studied from many different angles—much more than we initially expected! Studies have examined how storytelling ability develops with age, how it differs in children with language difficulties, and how bilingual experiences shape the way children tell stories in each language. Researchers have also used a variety of ways to elicit children’s stories, with wordless picture books and picture cards among the most common. 📚
By looking at what research has been already conducted, this project helps researchers identify what we still need to learn and helps clinicians better understand how to support the language development when working with Mandarin-speaking children. 💜
