Personal Narratives in Individuals with High-Functioning ASD: A Lens Into Social Skills Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) typically analyze fictional narratives because of their strong association with school success. A review of literature suggests that high-functioning individuals with ASD have more difficulties telling personal narratives ... Article
Article  |   January 01, 2014
Personal Narratives in Individuals with High-Functioning ASD: A Lens Into Social Skills
Pamela Rollins
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Pamela Rollins
    Callier Center for Communications Disorders, University of Texas-Dallas, Dallas, TX
  • Financial Disclosure: Pamela Rollins is an Associate Professor in the Communication Disorders program within the School of Behavior and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas-Dallas/Callier Center for Communication Disorders. This paper was supported in part by the University of Texas at Dallas, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Faculty Research Initiative Grant.
    Financial Disclosure: Pamela Rollins is an Associate Professor in the Communication Disorders program within the School of Behavior and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas-Dallas/Callier Center for Communication Disorders. This paper was supported in part by the University of Texas at Dallas, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Faculty Research Initiative Grant.×
  • Nonfinancial Disclosure: Pamela Rollins has previously published in the subject area.
    Nonfinancial Disclosure: Pamela Rollins has previously published in the subject area.×
  • Copyright © 2014 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Article Information
Special Populations / Autism Spectrum / Language Disorders / Social Communication & Pragmatics Disorders / Articles
Article   |   January 01, 2014
Personal Narratives in Individuals with High-Functioning ASD: A Lens Into Social Skills
SIG 1 Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, January 2014, Vol. 21, 13-20. doi:10.1044/lle21.1.13
SIG 1 Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, January 2014, Vol. 21, 13-20. doi:10.1044/lle21.1.13

Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) typically analyze fictional narratives because of their strong association with school success. A review of literature suggests that high-functioning individuals with ASD have more difficulties telling personal narratives than fictional narrative. Because problems telling personal narratives may negatively impact social relationships, we suggest evaluating personal narratives to aide intervention planning. We review the elicitation and analysis procedure for personal narratives described in McCabe & Rollins (1994)  and make suggestions for intervention.

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