The Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility and the Development of Coherent Speech in Preschoolers (A Study of Preschoolers’ Narratives)

In the field of educational psychology, the relationship between regulatory functions and the development of coherent monologic speech is a hot topic. In our country, however, this kind of research is still in the bud. The study assessed the level of cognitive flexibility, nonverbal intelligence, and the ability to produce coherent monologic speech in 279 children aged 5 and 6 with the purpose to explore meaningful predictors of the development of coherent speech in preschoolers based on their narratives. Children’s narratives have a macro- and a microstructure. The former is characterized by narrative length, completeness, adequacy, structure, and type (structural parameters of the narrative as a coherent and integral statement). The microstructure of the narrative is formed by such language aspects as phonetics, dictionary, morphology, and syntax. 
Research findings indicate that there is a strong correlation between cognitive flexibility and macrostructure parameters, while microstructure components are only slightly related to this regulatory function. Children who successfully completed the most difficult task of the cognitive flexibility test performed significantly better when creating narratives. The results of the nonverbal intelligence test show that both indicators (nonverbal intelligence and cognitive flexibility) can predict the narrative’s complexity level. These findings can be used to improve children’s cognitive development and school readiness.