Cover not available
Part of
Communication in Autism
Edited by Joanne Arciuli and Jon Brock
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 11] 2014
► pp. 169–216

Chapter 8. The use of narrative in studying communication in Autism Spectrum Disorders

A review of methodologies and findings

| The University of Melbourne
| The University of Melbourne
| Cardiff University
| Durham University

The construction and communication of narratives is a fundamental and distinctive aspect of our human experience. Investigation of narrative language has been used extensively in studying the impairments in language, communication and cognitive functioning associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). However the field has been characterized by a high degree of inconsistency in research findings and difficulty in drawing clear conclusions about narrative abilities in this diverse clinical population. For a range of measures, studies can be identified which have shown impairments in the narrative abilities of children with ASDs, while other studies show no significant differences when compared with neurotypical populations. In this article we critically review studies of language and communication in ASDs which include narrative data. We consider the range of methodologies used and some of the theoretical assumptions which have shaped these. We also review the findings from the studies and the potential impact that choice of methodological techniques may have had on these results. We address the kind of narrative data studied, the nature of the task used to elicit it, and the modality of presentation of stimulus materials. We provide a definitive picture of the state of play in narrative research on ASDs and propose directions for future research.

Published online: 30 October 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.11.09sti
References
Astington, J
(1990) Narrative and the child’s Theory of Mind. In B. Britton & A. Pelligrini (Eds.), Narrative Thought and Narrative Language (pp. 151–171). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M
(Ed.) (1987) Narrative Development: Six Approaches. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M., & Damrad-Frye, R
(1991) On the ability to provide evaluative comments: Further explorations of children’s narrative competencies. Journal of Child Language, 18, 689–710. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U
(1986) Mechanical, behavioural and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 113–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beaumont, R., & Newcombe, P
(2006) Theory of mind and central coherence in adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. Autism, 10(4), 365–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Begeer, S., Malle, B., Nieuwland, M., & Keysar, B
(2010) Using theory of mind to represent and take part in social interactions: Comparing individuals with high-functioning autism and typically developing controls. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7(1), 104–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berman, R
(2004) Language Development across Childhood and Adolescence (Trends in Language Acquisition Research 3). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009) Language development in narrative contexts. In E. Bavin (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Child Language (pp. 354–375). Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Bishop, D., & Edmundson, A
(1987) Specific language impairment as a maturational lag: Evidence from longitudinal data on language and motor development. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 29, 442–459. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Botting, N
(2002) Narrative as a tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18(1), 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, H., & Klein, P
(2011) Writing, Asperger Syndrome and theory of mind. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(11), 1464–1474. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, B., Morris, G., Nida, R., & Baker-Ward, L
(2012) Brief report: Making experience personal: Internal states language in the memory narratives of children with and without Asperger’s Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(11), 441–446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J
(1991) The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J., & Feldman, C
(1993) Theories of mind and the problem of autism. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Autism (pp. 267–291). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Capps, L., Kehres, J., & Sigman, M
(1998) Conversational abilities among children with Autism and children with developmental delays. Autism, 2(4), 325–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Capps, L., Losh, M., & Thurber, C
(2000) “The frog ate the bug and made his mouth sad”: Narrative competence in children with autism. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28(2), 193–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carey, L
(2007) Structural Narrative Analysis: Assessing Language Abilities in Autism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Durham.Google Scholar
Chapman, R., Seung, H., Schwartz, S., & Kay-Raining Bird, E
(1998) Language skills of children and adolescents with Down Syndrome, II: Production deficits. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 41, 861–873. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colle, L., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., & van der Lely, H
(2008) Narrative discourse in adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 28–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cowley, J., & Glasgow, C
(1994) The Renfrew Bus Story: Language Screening by Narrative Recall. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance.Google Scholar
Craig, J. & Baron-Cohen, S
(2000) Story-telling ability in children with autism or Asperger syndrome: A window into the imagination. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 37(1), 64–70.Google Scholar
Crain, S., & Thornton, R
(1998) Investigations in Universal Grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Davis, M., Dautenhahn, K., Nehaniv, C., & Powell, S
(2004) Towards an interactive system facilitating therapeutic narrative elicitation in Autism. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments (NILE (2004)).
De Marchena, A., & Eigsti, I–M
(2010) Conversational gestures in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Asynchrony but not decreased frequency. Autism Research, 3, 311–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diehl, J., Bennetto, L., & Young, E
(2006) Story recall and narrative coherence of high-functioning children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(1), 87–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ehlers, C
(2008) Effects of Listener and Context on the Spoken Stories of Children with ASD and TD Children. Unpublished Master’s thesis. University of Vermont.Google Scholar
Estigarribia, B., Martin, G., Roberts, J., Spencer, A., Gucwa, A., & Sideris, J
(2011) Narrative skill in boys with fragile X syndrome with and without autism spectrum disorder. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32, 359–388. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Feffer, M
(1970) Role-taking behaviour in the mentally retarded. ERIC Report to the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, U.S. Office of Education, Department of Health and Social Welfare.
Gabig, C.S
(2008) Verbal working memory and story retelling in school-age children with autism. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 498–511. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Perez, R.M., Hobson, R.P. & Lee, A
(2008) Narrative role-taking in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 156–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldman, S
(2008) Brief Report: Narratives of personal events in children with autism and developmental language disorders: Unshared memories. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1982–1988. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grant, C., Boucher, J., Riggs, K. & Grayson, A
(2005) Moral understanding in children with autism. Autism, 9(3), 317–331. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gray, C
(2000) The New Social Story Book: Illustrated Edition. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.Google Scholar
Happé, F
(1992) The autobiographical writings of three Asperger syndrome adults: Problems of interpretation and implications for theory. In U. Frith (Ed.) Autism and Asperger syndrome (pp. 207–242). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heider, F., & Simmel, M
(1944) An experimental study of apparent behavior. American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243–259. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ho, W.C., Davis, M., & Dautenhahn, K
(2009) Supporting narrative understanding of children with autism: A story interface with autonomous autobiographic agents. IEEE Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics 2009, ICORR 2009 (pp. 905–911).
Hudson, J.A., & Shapiro, L.R
(1991) From knowing to telling: The development of children’s scripts, stories, and personal narratives. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing Narrative Structure (pp. 89–136). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Jarrold, C., & Brock, J
(2004) To match or not to match? Methodological issues in autism-related research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(1), 81–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jiao, Q
(2001) Research on theory of mind in autism. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 15(1), 60–62.Google Scholar
Klin, A
(2000) Attributing social meaning to ambiguous visual stimuli in higher-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome: The Social Attribution Task. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41(7), 831–846. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J
(1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W
(1997) Some further steps in narrative analysis. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7, 395–415.Google Scholar
Landa, R
(2000) Social language use in Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. In A. Klin, F. Volkmar, & S. Sparrow (Eds.), Asperger Syndrome (pp. 125–158). New York, NY: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Landa, R., Martin, M., Minshew, N., & Goldstein, G
(1995) Discourse and abstract language ability in non-retarded individuals with autism. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis.
Liles, B
(1993) Narrative discourse in children with language disorders and children with normal language: A critical review. Journal of Speech Hearing Research, 36, 868–882. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liles, B., Coelho, C., Duffy, R., & Zalagens, M
(1989) Effects of elicitation procedures on the narratives of normal and closed head-injured adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 356–366. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Losh, M., & Capps, L
(2003) Narrative ability in High-Functioning children with Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(3), 239–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loveland, K., McEvoy, R., & Tunali, B
(1990) Narrative story telling in autism and Down’s syndrome. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8(1), 9–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loveland, K., & Tunali, B
(1993) Narrative language in autism and the theory of mind hypothesis: A wider perspective. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Autism (pp. 247–266). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Manolitsi, M., & Botting, N
(2011) Language abilities in children with autism and language impairment: using narrative as an additional source of clinical information. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 27(1), 39–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, G.E
(2009) Verbal Perseveration in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome with and Without Autism Compared to Boys with Down Syndrome. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation. University of North Carolina.Google Scholar
Mason, R.A., Williams, D.L., Kana, R.K., Minshew, N. & Just, M.A
(2008) Theory of Mind disruption and recruitment of the right hemisphere during narrative comprehension in autism. Neuropsychologia, 46, 269–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mason, R.A., & Just, M.A
(2009) The role of the Theory-of-Mind cortical network in the comprehension of narratives. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(1), 157–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M
(1969) Frog, Where Are You? New York, NY: Puffin.Google Scholar
(1973) Frog on his Own. New York, NY: Puffin.Google Scholar
Miller, P.J., & Sperry, L.L
(1988) Early talk about the past: The origins of conversational stories about personal experience. Journal of Child Language, 15, 293–315. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ninio, A
(1988) On formal grammatical categories in early child language. In Y. Levy, I. Schlesinger, & M.D.S. Braine (Eds.), Categories and Processes in Language Acquisition (pp. 99–119). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Norbury, C.F., & Bishop, D.V.M
(2002) Inferential processing and story recall in children with communication problems: A comparison of specific language impairment, pragmatic language impairment and high-functioning autism. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 37(3), 227–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003) Narrative skills of children with communication impairments. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 38(3), 287–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E., & Solomon, O
(2004) Introduction: Discourse and autism. Discourse Studies, 6, 139–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peng, F.C.C
(1988) On the acquisition of discourse among autistic children. Language Sciences, 10(1), 193–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pearlman-Avnion, S., & Eviatar, Z
(2002) Narrative analysis in developmental social and linguistic pathologies: Dissociation between emotional and informational language use. Brain and Cognition, 48(2–3), 494–499.Google Scholar
Polanyi, L
(1989) Telling the American Story: A structural and cultural analysis of conversational storytelling. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prince, D.E
(2010) An exceptional path: An ethnographic narrative reflecting on autistic parenthood from evolutionary, cultural, and spiritual perspectives. Ethos, 38(1), 56–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reilly, J., Bates, E., & Marchman, V
(1998) Narrative discourse in children with early focal brain injury. Brain and Language, 61, 335–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reilly, J., Klima, E., & Bellugi, U
(1990) Once more with feeling: Affect and language in atypical populations. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 367–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, I
(2008) Autistic autobiography or autistic life narrative? Journal of Literary Disability, 2(1), 44–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruffman, T., Garnham, W., & Rideout, P
(2001) Social understanding in autism: Eye gaze as a measure of core insights. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(8), 1083–1094. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S
(1981) Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication (Advances in Discourse Processes). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Seung, H.K
(2007) Linguistic characteristics of individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 21(4), 247–259. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sirota, K.G
(2010a) Narratives of transformation: Family discourse, autism and trajectories of hope. Discourse and Society, 21(5), 544–564. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010b) Narratives of distinction: Personal life narrative as a technology of the self in the everyday lives and relational worlds of children with autism. Ethos, 38(1), 93–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slaughter, V., Peterson, C.C. & Mackintosh, E
(2007) Mind what mother says: Narrative input and Theory of Mind in typical children and those on the autism spectrum. Child Development, 78(3), 839–858. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Solomon, O
(2004) Narrative introductions: Discourse competence of children with autistic spectrum disorders. Discourse Studies, 6(2), 253–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) Language, autism, and childhood: An ethnographic perspective. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 28, 150–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stirling, L., & Barrington, G
(2007) “Then I’ll huff & I’ll puff or I’ll go on the roff!” thinks the wolf: Spontaneous written narratives by a child with autism. In A. Schalley & D. Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental States: Language and Cognitive Structure (pp. 133–172). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stirling, L., Barrington, G., & Douglas, S
(2007a) Two times three little pigs: Dysfluency, cognitive complexity and autism. Proceedings of the 2006 Australian Linguistic Society Conference , Brisbane, 7–9 July (2006).
(2007b) Progression in narrative ability: A case study comparing successive written and oral retellings of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ by a child with autism. AWN Research Report-2-07, School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne. (Originally presented at The Biennial National Autism Conference, The Gold Coast, 14–16 March 2007.)
Stirling, L., Barrington, G., Douglas, S., & Delves, K
(2009a) Analysis of perspective management and reported interaction in story retellings by children with ASD and typically developing children. Electronic Journal of Applied Psychology, 5(1), 31–38. Special issue on Innovations in Autism . DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009b) The developmental profile of editing and repair strategies in narrative structure: A cross-sectional study of primary school children. In The Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (Vol. 2, pp. 504–515). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Stojanovik, V
(2006) Social interaction deficits and conversational inadequacy in Williams syndrome. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 19, 157–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stothard, S., Snowling, M., Bishop, D., Chipcase, B., & Kaplan, C
(1998) Language-impaired preschoolers: A follow-up into adolescence. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 407–418. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H
(1995) “Once upon a ribbit”: Stories narrated by autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13(1), 45–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H., & Sullivan, K
(1995) Attributing mental states to story characters: A comparison of narratives produced by autistic and mentally retarded individuals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 16(3), 241–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tartaro, A., & Cassell, J
(2006) Using virtual peer technology as an intervention for children with Autism. In J. Lazar (Ed.) Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations (pp. 231–262). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Thurber, C., & Tager-Flusberg, H
(1993) Pauses in the narratives produced by autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children as an index of cognitive demand. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 23(2), 309–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Volkmar, F.R., & Cohen, D.J
(1985) The experience of infantile autism: A first-person account by Tony W. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 15, 47–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wallace, J
(2000) Walter. In A. Klin, F. Volkmar, & S. Sparrow (Eds.), Asperger Syndrome (pp. 434–462). New York, NY: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Waterhouse, L., & Fein, D
(1982) Language skills in developmentally disabled children. Brain and Language, 15(2), 307–333. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 8 other publications

Dindar, Katja, Soile Loukusa, Eeva Leinonen, Leena Mäkinen, Laura Mämmelä, Marja-Leena Mattila, Hanna Ebeling & Tuula Hurtig
2022. Autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits differ from non-autistic adults in social-pragmatic inferencing and narrative discourse. Autism ► pp. 136236132211360 ff. DOI logo
Emborg, Christina
2022. Perseverative storytelling in autism as an interactional phenomenon. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders 14:1 DOI logo
Favot, Kate, Mark Carter & Jennifer Stephenson
2022. The Effects of an Oral Narrative Intervention on the Fictional Narratives of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Language Disorder. Journal of Behavioral Education 31:4 ► pp. 657 ff. DOI logo
Geelhand, Philippine, Fanny Papastamou & Mikhail Kissine
2021. How do autistic adults use syntactic and prosodic cues to manage spoken discourse?. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 35:12 ► pp. 1184 ff. DOI logo
Hallin, Anna Eva, Gabrielle D. Garcia & Christina Reuterskiöld
2016. The Use of Causal Language and Filled Pauses in Children with and without Autism. Child Development Research 2016 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Huang, Ying, Miranda Kit-Yi Wong, Wan-Yi Lam, Chun-Ho Cheng & Wing-Chee So
2020. Gestures in Storytelling by Preschool Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Autism. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
Sah, Wen-hui & Pao-chuan Torng
2015. Narrative coherence of Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An investigation into causal relations. First Language 35:3 ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo
Sah, Wen-hui & Pao-chuan Torng
2017. Production of mental state terms in narratives of Mandarin-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 31:2 ► pp. 174 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 june 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.