Internal state language in the storybook narratives of children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Investigating relations to theory of mind abilities

Michael Siller, Meghan R. Swanson, Gayle Serlin, Ann G. Teachworth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study examines narratives elicited using a wordless picture book, focusing on language used to describe the characters' thoughts and emotions (i.e., internal state language, ISL). The sample includes 21 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 24 typically developing controls, matched on children's gender, IQ, as well as receptive and expressive vocabulary. This research had three major findings. First, despite equivalent performance on standardized language assessments, the volume of children's narratives (i.e., the number of utterances and words, the range of unique verbs and adjectives) was lower in children with ASD than in typically developing controls. Second, after controlling for narrative volume, the narratives of children with ASD were less likely to reference the characters' emotions than was the case for typically developing controls. Finally, our results revealed a specific association between children's use of emotion terms and their performance on a battery of experimental tasks evaluating children's Theory of Mind abilities. Implications for our understanding of narrative deficits in ASD as well as interventions that use narrative as a context for improving social comprehension are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)589-596
Number of pages8
JournalResearch in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Volume8
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Internal state language
  • Narrative
  • Theory of mind

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