Effect of Listener and Context on Children's Stories

This book describes a study examining the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing peers across listeners and communicative context. Four children, 8 to 11 years of age, with ASD and average non-verbal cognitive ability were language-age matched with similar chronological age, typically developing peers. Participants generated narratives from a wordless picture book, story-retell of a short film, and a personal experience told to peer- and adult listeners. Narratives were analyzed for story length, causal statements, internal states, character references, irrelevant information, and examiner prompts. No significant group differences occurred on measures of length, internal states, irrelevant information, or prompts. Children with ASD were less likely to include causal statements in story retell and wordless picture book narratives told to adults and were more likely to use inaccurate or ambiguous references to characters in personal narratives told to an adult listener than their typical peers. Narratives of children with ASD were similar on measures of length, internal states, causal statements, use of irrelevant information and prompts.