Children's Storytelling Skills Studied Globally
Researchers analyzed thousands of stories to understand how children express characters' thoughts and emotions.
Updated on Oct. 8, 2026 in Language Learning
Live Poll
Do you believe storytelling at home helps improve your child's communication and thinking skills?
A massive international study has mapped how children between the ages of 3 and 13 develop the ability to describe the internal states of story characters. The research involved over 2,700 participants speaking 44 different languages.
Why it matters
Understanding the timeline of emotional expression in storytelling helps experts identify when children may need extra support in language development. These findings provide a global benchmark for assessing how young speakers articulate characters' perceptions and feelings.
The study utilized 5,507 picture-based narratives from 2,763 children aged 3 to 13 across 32 countries. Participants spoke a total of 44 languages, providing a broad linguistic dataset.
The players
ZAS
The ZAS research center based in Berlin serves as a primary hub for studying linguistics and language development.
The details
Researchers used the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) to evaluate how children express thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Results showed that retelling a story significantly increased the use of internal state terms, while older children consistently performed better than younger ones.
Timeline
The MAIN instrument was initially designed in 2019.
The findings from the international study were published in 2026.
Culture Shift
This research follows the established protocols of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). The study updates the data pool previously established by the instrument by incorporating 44 distinct languages.
Parents and educators can use these insights to better gauge a child's narrative development during daily storytime routines. Children who have difficulty describing internal states may be flagged for targeted support by speech-language professionals.
The takeaway
Storytelling development is a universal process that relies heavily on a child's age rather than whether they are monolingual or bilingual. Encouraging children to retell stories is a practical and effective way to boost their ability to articulate complex thoughts and feelings.
Further reading
For more information on how youngsters acquire communication abilities, visit the Language Learning section.
More information
Learn more about the standardized testing process on the Webpage of MAIN assessment tool.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Informationdienst Wissenschaft e.V. - idw.
Live Poll
Do you believe storytelling at home helps improve your child's communication and thinking skills?
