Written narratives in children with autism
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Judy Reilly
Abstract
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who are high functioning often perform in the normal range on standardized language measures, but they show impairments in the social use of spoken language, especially in more naturalistic situations. As they enter school, literacy, that is, learning to read and write, becomes the principal linguistic challenge; in this chapter, we look at written personal narratives from school-age children with ASD. The narrative texts are analyzed for both structural aspects of language as well as social discourse, i.e., narrative structure. Our findings indicate that children with ASD write shorter narratives, make more morphological errors, and use fewer and less diverse complex sentences than the typically developing children. They also show impoverished use of some social discourse elements in their written narratives. Our results are discussed in light of potential explanations including Frith’s (1989) theory of “Weak Central Coherence”.
Abstract
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who are high functioning often perform in the normal range on standardized language measures, but they show impairments in the social use of spoken language, especially in more naturalistic situations. As they enter school, literacy, that is, learning to read and write, becomes the principal linguistic challenge; in this chapter, we look at written personal narratives from school-age children with ASD. The narrative texts are analyzed for both structural aspects of language as well as social discourse, i.e., narrative structure. Our findings indicate that children with ASD write shorter narratives, make more morphological errors, and use fewer and less diverse complex sentences than the typically developing children. They also show impoverished use of some social discourse elements in their written narratives. Our results are discussed in light of potential explanations including Frith’s (1989) theory of “Weak Central Coherence”.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
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Part I. Language and literacy development
- How neuroscience can inform education 3
- The neural basis for primary and acquired language skills 17
- Contributions from cognitive neuroscience to current understanding of reading acquisition and reading disability 29
- Lexical quality revisited 51
- The role of metalinguistic and socio-cognitive factors in reading skill 69
- Developing reading comprehension interventions 85
- Hunting for the links between word-level writing skills and text quality 103
- The development of Hebrew conjunct constructions in narration 119
- Motivation and engagement in language and literacy development 137
- Children’s hypertext comprehension 149
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Part II. Multilingual language and literacy development
- An updated review of cross-language transfer and its educational implications 167
- The influence of first language on learning English as an additional language 183
- Multilingual learners 199
- A comparison of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in reading Chinese across two linguistic contexts 219
- Development of qualifiers in children’s written stories 237
- Individual variation in syntactic processing in the second language 257
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Part III. Language and literacy development in special populations and its implications
- How to teach children reading and spelling 277
- Two technologies to help adults with reading difficulties improve their comprehension 295
- Can poor readers be good learners? 315
- The shift of the role of early intervention in the study of dyslexia 333
- Issues in diagnosing dyslexia 349
- Imagery in reading and reading disabilities 363
- Written narratives in children with autism 379
- Advancing interventions for children with motor restrictions 399
- Assessment of communicative competence in children with severe developmental disorders 413
- Index 441
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Part I. Language and literacy development
- How neuroscience can inform education 3
- The neural basis for primary and acquired language skills 17
- Contributions from cognitive neuroscience to current understanding of reading acquisition and reading disability 29
- Lexical quality revisited 51
- The role of metalinguistic and socio-cognitive factors in reading skill 69
- Developing reading comprehension interventions 85
- Hunting for the links between word-level writing skills and text quality 103
- The development of Hebrew conjunct constructions in narration 119
- Motivation and engagement in language and literacy development 137
- Children’s hypertext comprehension 149
-
Part II. Multilingual language and literacy development
- An updated review of cross-language transfer and its educational implications 167
- The influence of first language on learning English as an additional language 183
- Multilingual learners 199
- A comparison of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in reading Chinese across two linguistic contexts 219
- Development of qualifiers in children’s written stories 237
- Individual variation in syntactic processing in the second language 257
-
Part III. Language and literacy development in special populations and its implications
- How to teach children reading and spelling 277
- Two technologies to help adults with reading difficulties improve their comprehension 295
- Can poor readers be good learners? 315
- The shift of the role of early intervention in the study of dyslexia 333
- Issues in diagnosing dyslexia 349
- Imagery in reading and reading disabilities 363
- Written narratives in children with autism 379
- Advancing interventions for children with motor restrictions 399
- Assessment of communicative competence in children with severe developmental disorders 413
- Index 441
