Narrative Intervention for Children with Autism: Targeting Core Symptoms

The purpose of this study was to test whether a fully developed program designed to teach narrative language skills was effective in increasing narrative proficiency, and knowledge of mental state and causal language for 5 children with high functioning autism (ASD). Children between the ages of 8-12 participated in a multiple-baseline across participants, single subject design study. Children were asked to retell and create stories for a baseline period and weekly during the intervention period. Children begin intervention in a staggered fashion as they demonstrated stable baselines and/or stable improvement in oral narratives. Time spent in intervention ranged from 19-32, 45-minute individual sessions. Children demonstrated clear, observable gains in narrative proficiency and knowledge of mental state and causal language. Individual variability was observed and is discussed