The relation of internal state language and theory of mind abilities in the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder and normal developing children

Document Type : .

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran

Abstract

Objective: The present study investigates the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder and normal developing children focusing on the language used to describe character’s thoughts and emotions (i.e., internal state language, ISL). Method: the sample of the study consisted of 21 autistic children and 24 normal developing children who were matched on IQ, receptive and expressive vocabulary. Results: The present study had three major findings: First, despite equivalent performance on standardized language assessments, the volume of children’s narratives (i.e., the number of utterances and words, the range of unique verbs and adjectives) was lower in children with ASD than in typically developing controls. Second, after controlling for narrative volume, the narratives of children with ASD were less likely to reference the characters’ emotions than was the case for typically developing controls. Finally, our results revealed a specific association between children’s use of emotion terms and their performance on a battery of experimental tasks evaluating children’s Theory of Mind abilities. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that the poor narrative skills of children with ASD may at least in part be attributed to deficits in the ability to interpret others’ thoughts internal states.

Keywords

Language and Linguistics
Volume 19, Issue 38
September 2024

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