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Narrative story telling in autism and Down's syndrome
227
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References
1990
Year
Verbal ChildrenLanguage DevelopmentAtypical Language DevelopmentEducationNarrative And IdentityPsycholinguisticsNeurodiversity (Disability Studies)PsychologyNarrative StoryNeurodiversitySocial Communication DisorderChild LanguageCognitive DevelopmentAutismLanguage StudiesDown SyndromeChild PsychologyCognitive ScienceNeurodiversity (Clinical Neuropsychology)Social SkillsSocial CognitionSpeech CommunicationLanguage DisorderAutistic WomanStory Recall AbilityCommunicative DisordersBizarre Language
The study situates its findings within the broader context of how autistic individuals perceive listeners' needs and social environmental factors. The study examined whether high‑functioning verbal children and adolescents with autism or Down’s syndrome can narrate a story to a listener. The authors recruited 16 autistic and 16 Down’s syndrome participants matched on verbal mental age, had them view a puppet show or video sketch, and then asked them to retell the story and answer follow‑up questions. Both groups produced recognizable but primitive narratives, with no overall differences in story characteristics, yet autistic participants exhibited more bizarre language and an externalized perspective, while Down’s syndrome participants used more communicative gestures; overall, autistic children’s story recall resembled that of language‑matched, mentally retarded peers, though some struggled to interpret the story as meaningful events.
The present study investigated the ability of high functioning verbal children and adolescents with autism or Down's syndrome to tell a story to a listener. Sixteen subjects with autism and 16 with Down's syndrome (DS), matched on verbal mental age, watched a short puppet show or video sketch and were then asked to tell the story to a listener and answer follow‐up questions. The majority of both groups were able to produce recognizable, though primitive, narratives. The groups did not differ in general story characteristics and both groups exhibited errors in language use. Subjects with autism had a greater tendency to produce bizarre language and adopt an ‘externalized’ point of view in which the puppets/actors were seen as objects rather than characters. Also, DS subjects produced significantly more communicative gestures. Although the groups were about equally able to supply information for follow‐up questions, autistic subjects produced a higher proportion of bizarre responses. Results indicate that the story recall ability of autistic subjects resembles that of language‐matched, mentally retarded persons. However, some autistic subjects appeared to have difficulty grasping the story as a representation of meaningful events. Results are discussed in relation to the autistic person's awareness of listeners' needs and aspects of the social environment.