TY - JOUR
T1 - Internal state language in the storybook narratives of children with and without autism spectrum disorder
T2 - Investigating relations to theory of mind abilities
AU - Siller, Michael
AU - Swanson, Meghan R.
AU - Serlin, Gayle
AU - Teachworth, Ann G.
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Autism spectrum disorder
KW - Internal state language
KW - Narrative
KW - Theory of mind
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896525485&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.rasd.2014.02.002
DO - 10.1016/j.rasd.2014.02.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84896525485
SN - 1750-9467
VL - 8
SP - 589
EP - 596
JO - Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
JF - Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
IS - 5
ER -