By the Book: An Analysis of Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Condition Co-constructing Fictional Narratives with Peers

Abstract

In this discourse analytic study, we examine interactions between adolescents with autism spectrum condition (ASC) and their typically developing (TD) peers during the construction of fictional narratives within a group intervention context. We found participants with ASC contributed fewer narrative-related turns at talk than TD participants. The groups organized the activity as a means to subvert moral and social norms, and youth with ASC participated in negotiating new norms with varying degrees of success. Further, participants with ASC often prioritized making explicit links between narrative events over creative interpretations of narrative, which illustrated differing orientations to the narrative project. Our findings add an interactional dimension to existing research focusing on the psychological aspects of narrative production in individuals with ASC.

Using video modeling to improve the social communication of an adolescent with autism spectrum disorder

“…There have been a number of recent qualitative studies of conversation skills and adolescents with autism (Bottema-Beutel & White, 2016;Bottema-Beutel, Louick, & White, 2015;Bottema-Beutel & Smith, 2013;Bottema-Beutel, 2011) that can inform the development of both VM of conversation and peer orientation practices. Mixed-methods studies that pair single-subject empirical designs with qualitative methods like discourse analysis may also hold great promise to illuminate and more fully understand complex intervention on complex skills.…”

Narrative discourse and theory of mind as measures of autism spectrum disorders

“…Narrative is a complex cognitive, linguistic and socio-communicative skill and its practice provides a medium for creating temporal and causal connections between imagined and past events (Bottema-Beutel & White, 2016;Berman, 2009;Norbury et al, 2014;Reilly, Losh, Bellugi & Wulfeck, 2004; for review, see Stirling, Douglas, Leekam, & Carey, 2014). Children from a very early age are exposed to this specific genre and they are systematically trained, via narratives, in tasks that provide the explanation of human behavior through the ascription of mental states (Cassidy et al, 1998).…”