Review article
Narratives of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2016.09.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This meta-analysis analyses the narrative performance of high-functioning ASD children.

  • Indicators considered were microstructure, macrostructure and internal state language.

  • Meta-analysis of 24 studies revealed worse narrative abilities of ASD than their peers.

  • Larger effect sizes were found in narrative macrostructure: coherence, cohesive adequacy.

  • Narrative is a vulnerable domain in ASD/HF children and adolescents.

Abstract

Background

The aim of this meta-analysis was to analyze the narrative performance of children and adolescents with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in terms of microstructure, macrostructure and internal state language.

Method

A systematic literature search yielded 24 studies that met the predetermined inclusion criteria. Effect sizes for each study were calculated for eight variables and analyzed using a random effects model. Intellectual ability, age and type of narrative were considered as potential moderators.

Results

Results revealed that the children with ASD performed significantly worse than their peers on all the variables considered.

Conclusions

Findings are discussed taking into account the main explanatory psychological autism theories. Implications for intervention and orientations for future research are suggested.

Section snippets

What this paper adds?

  • This is the first meta-analysis about narrative abilities in children with ASD/HFA (Autism Spectrum Disorders/High Functioning Autism).

  • The results revealed that individuals with ASD/HFA showed deficits in all narrative domains (macrostructure, microstructure, and internal state language) compared to controls.

  • Findings did not differ in subgroups based on age and narrative type, but for internal state language, differences were greater in magnitude in the high verbal IQ group.

  • Narrative, a way of

Eligibility criteria for the studies

The articles to be included in the meta-analysis had to meet the following inclusion criteria:

1)They were published in refereed journals; 2) The participants were children or adolescents with an ASD diagnosis (according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) (Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001) and/or the Revised Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R) (Rutter, LeCouteur,

Statistical analysis

Data extraction from the narrative indicators was independently performed, cross-checked by two of the authors, and entered into RevMan 5.3. To achieve consistency with other meta-analyses and provide a robust estimation of the effects, the different narrative domains were analyzed only if there were data from at least 5 studies.

Effect sizes (Standardized mean difference) were computed to represent the differences in narrative language between the ASD and control groups. Because a large

Discussion

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to more closely examine the narrative abilities of children and adolescents with ASD through the analysis of different indicators of their performance on narrative expression: narrative microstructure and macrostructure and ISL.

This meta-analysis revealed that, in general, individuals with ASD demonstrate lower narrative performance than children and adolescents with TD. They experience significant difficulties on all the variables evaluated, although with

Conclusion

In summary, this comprehensive review and meta-analysis made it possible to draw a general profile of narrative abilities that can contribute to the endophenotypic characterization of ASD and the establishment of intervention objectives in this area. Narrative is a vulnerable domain in children and adolescents with ASD, and it is a particularly useful instrument due to the limitations of standardized tests, such as lack of sensitivity (Botting, 2010). Based on the results of our study, their

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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      In short, good narrative communication requires that events be pieced together in a meaningful way so that individuals may convey a particular point of view for the benefit of the listener, thereby requiring that the storyteller both holds information about their intended message and adjusts language to fit their listener’s needs. So far, a clear picture of narrative language use by ASD individuals has been elusive (see Baixauli et al., 2016 and Stirling et al., 2014 for reviews). Regarding the length and complexity of narrative, several studies have reported that narratives of ASD children are shorter and less syntactically complex than neurotypical (NT) children (Capps et al., 2000; Carlsson et al., 2020; King et al., 2013; Peristeri et al., 2017; Thurber & Tager-Flusberg, 1993).

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