Syntactic and Story Structure Complexity in the Narratives of High- and Low-Language Ability Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
- PMID:29209258
- PMCID: PMC5701940
- DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02027
Syntactic and Story Structure Complexity in the Narratives of High- and Low-Language Ability Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Abstract
Although language impairment is commonly associated with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Diagnostic Statistical Manual no longer includes language impairment as a necessary component of an ASD diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, children with ASD and no comorbid intellectual disability struggle with some aspects of language whose precise nature is still outstanding. Narratives have been extensively used as a tool to examine lexical and syntactic abilities, as well as pragmatic skills in children with ASD. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the narrative skills of 30 Greek-speaking children with ASD and normal non-verbal IQ, 16 with language skills in the upper end of the normal range (ASD-HL), and 14 in the lower end of the normal range (ASD-LL). The control group consisted of 15 age-matched typically-developing (TD) children. Narrative performance was measured in terms of both microstructural and macrostructural properties. Microstructural properties included lexical and syntactic measures of complexity such as subordinate vs. coordinate clauses and types of subordinate clauses. Macrostructure was measured in terms of the diversity in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) and story structure complexity, i.e., children's ability to produce important units of information that involve the setting, characters, events, and outcomes of the story, as well as the characters' thoughts and feelings. The findings demonstrate that high language ability and syntactic complexity pattern together in ASD children's narrative performance and that language ability compensates for autistic children's pragmatic deficit associated with the production of Theory of Mind-related ISTs. Nevertheless, both groups of children with ASD (high and low language ability) scored lower than the TD controls in the production of Theory of Mind-unrelated ISTs, modifier clauses and story structure complexity.
Keywords: autism; language ability; macrostructure; microstructure; narratives; sentence complexity.
Similar articles
- Internal State Language in the Storybook Narratives of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder: Investigating Relations to Theory of Mind Abilities.Siller M, Swanson MR, Serlin G, George A.Siller M, et al.Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2014 May 1;8(5):589-596. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2014.02.002.Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2014.PMID:24748899Free PMC article.
- Inferential narrative comprehension ability of young school-age children on the autism spectrum.Westerveld MF, Filiatrault-Veilleux P, Paynter J.Westerveld MF, et al.Autism Dev Lang Impair. 2021 Sep 7;6:23969415211035666. doi: 10.1177/23969415211035666. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.Autism Dev Lang Impair. 2021.PMID:36531336Free PMC article.
- Narrative Microstructure and Macrostructure Skills of Persian-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.Teimouri Sangani M, Nakhostin Ansari N, Soleymani Z, Jalilevand N, Sohrabi M, Mohamadi R, Razjouyan K.Teimouri Sangani M, et al.Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2023 Nov 8;37:119. doi: 10.47176/mjiri.37.119. eCollection 2023.Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2023.PMID:38145182Free PMC article.
- Executive Function Skills in School-Age Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Association With Language Abilities.Ellis Weismer S, Kaushanskaya M, Larson C, Mathée J, Bolt D.Ellis Weismer S, et al.J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018 Nov 8;61(11):2641-2658. doi: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-RSAUT-18-0026.J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018.PMID:30418493Free PMC article.Review.
- Narratives of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis.Baixauli I, Colomer C, Roselló B, Miranda A.Baixauli I, et al.Res Dev Disabil. 2016 Dec;59:234-254. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2016.09.007. Epub 2016 Sep 16.Res Dev Disabil. 2016.PMID:27643571Review.
Cited by
- Narrative Abilities of Adults' With Down Syndrome as a Window to Their Morphosyntactic, Socio-Cognitive, and Prosodic Abilities.Martzoukou M, Nousia A, Marinis T.Martzoukou M, et al.Front Psychol. 2020 Aug 26;11:2060. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02060. eCollection 2020.Front Psychol. 2020.PMID:32982854Free PMC article.
- Developmental Language Disorder and Autism: Commonalities and Differences on Language.Georgiou N, Spanoudis G.Georgiou N, et al.Brain Sci. 2021 Apr 30;11(5):589. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11050589.Brain Sci. 2021.PMID:33946615Free PMC article.
- Here's the Story: Narrative Ability and Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Greco G, Choi B, Michel K, Faja S.Greco G, et al.Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2023 Mar;101:102092. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2022.102092. Epub 2022 Dec 26.Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2023.PMID:36644329Free PMC article.
- Defining the Characteristics of Story Production of Autistic Children: A Multilevel Analysis.Adornetti I, Chiera A, Altavilla D, Deriu V, Marini A, Gobbo M, Valeri G, Magni R, Ferretti F.Adornetti I, et al.J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Oct;54(10):3759-3776. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-06096-2. Epub 2023 Sep 1.J Autism Dev Disord. 2024.PMID:37653117Free PMC article.
- Behavioral and Autonomic Responses in Treating Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clinical and Phenomenological Insights from Two Case Reports.Billeci L, Caterino E, Tonacci A, Gava ML.Billeci L, et al.Brain Sci. 2020 Jun 17;10(6):382. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10060382.Brain Sci. 2020.PMID:32560365Free PMC article.
References
- Agouraki Y. (1990). On the projection of maximal categories: the case of CP and FP in Modern Greek. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 2, 183–199.
- American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edn. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
- Andreou M. (2015). The Effects of Bilingualism on Verbal and Non Verbal Cognition: The Micro- and Macro-Structure of Narratives in the Weak and the Dominant Language of the Bilingual Child. Dissertation thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Related information
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources