Presenter: Dr. Carol Westby, University of New Mexico
When: Friday, February 19, 2021
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Narratives have a central place in the lives of humans. Most of the research on narratives has focused on the structure, content, and style of fictional narratives. Comprehension and production of fictional narratives predicts academic performance through the school year. Much less attention has been given to personal narratives, yet we use personal narratives in many more contexts than fictional stories. Most conversations with others involve sharing personal stories. It is through sharing of personal stories that we establish and maintain social relationships. And it is through telling of coherent personal stories that we develop a cultural self-identity that guides our behavior and is essential for psychological well-being. We tell ourselves stories and we live by the stories we tell ourselves.
The presenter of this sessions will explain why personal narratives are a critical aspect of development, describe influences of culture on personal narratives, describe the relationship between autobiographic memory and personal narratives, and describe strategies to promote telling of detailed, coherent personal narratives.
Aims of the presentation::
- Explain why personal narratives are a critical aspect of development
- Describe influences of culture on personal narratives
- Describe strategies to promote telling of detailed, coherent personal narratives
Carol Westby, CCC-SLP, PhD, BCS-CL, is an internationally renowned expert on play assessment and development. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on play, theory of mind, language-literacy relationships, narrative/expository development and facilitation, screen time, understanding and working with children and families who have experienced trauma, and issues in assessment and intervention with culturally/ linguistically diverse populations.
Dr. Westby is a consultant for Bilingual Multicultural Services in Albuquerque, NM and holds an affiliated appointment in Communication Disorders at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. She is a fellow of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), has received the Honors of ASHA, and holds Specialty Recognition in Child Language. Dr. Westby has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Geneva College and the University of Iowa's Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology and the ASHA Award for Contributions to Multicultural Affairs.