Zarokanellou Vasiliki, Gryparis Alexandros, Papanikolaou Katerina
Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Ioannina, 45500 Ioannina, Greece.
Department of Child Psychiatry, Agia Sophia Children's Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athina, Greece.
Brain Sci. 2025 Jan 15;15(1):73. doi: 10.3390/brainsci15010073.
: Narration is a sensitive tool for the assessment of language in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) since mild language deficits beyond the sentential level are not always noticeable through the administration of standardized language tests targeting the lexical or sentential level. This study investigated the narrative ability of monolingual Greek-speaking HF-ASD children in comparison to that of their typically developing (TD) peers and explored the associations between narrative variables, ADHD symptomatology, and memory skills in the participants on the autistic spectrum. : The participants were 39 children aged 7 to 12 years, 19 with HF-ASD and 20 age-matched, vocabulary-matched, and cognitively matched TD peers. : The two groups were similar in most microstructural and macrostructural variables but differed significantly in syntactic complexity ( = 0.024; = 0.754) and subordination ( < 0.001; = -1.576) indices, implying that the HF-ASD group presented syntactic delay in comparison to their TD peers. The HF-ASD participants showed significantly higher heterogeneity in the amount of information generated for the story's main character ( = 0.004; = -0.093) in comparison to their TD peers. Significant associations were observed between verbal and visual memory, complex syntactic structures, and Theory of Mind-related internal state terms. ADHD symptomatology was negatively correlated with the generation of simple and coordinated clauses. Finally, complex syntax and delayed vSTM were correlated with retelling total scores, indicating that language ability and verbal memory compensate for narrative competence in HF-ASD children. : The findings highlight the impact that language skills, memory ability, and ADHD symptomatology have on narrative competence in children with HF-ASD, as well as the importance of narrative use for assessing the language skills in populations with mild language impairment.
叙述是评估高功能自闭症谱系障碍（HF-ASD）儿童语言能力的敏感工具，因为通过针对词汇或句子层面的标准化语言测试，往往无法发现句子层面以上的轻微语言缺陷。本研究调查了以希腊语为母语的单语HF-ASD儿童与其发育正常（TD）的同龄人相比的叙事能力，并探讨了自闭症谱系参与者的叙事变量、多动症症状和记忆技能之间的关联。：参与者为39名7至12岁的儿童，其中19名患有HF-ASD，20名年龄匹配、词汇匹配且认知匹配的发育正常同龄人。：两组在大多数微观结构和宏观结构变量上相似，但在句法复杂性（ = 0.024； = 0.754）和从属关系（ < 0.001； = -1.576）指标上存在显著差异，这表明HF-ASD组与其发育正常的同龄人相比存在句法延迟。与发育正常的同龄人相比，HF-ASD参与者在为故事主角生成的信息量方面表现出显著更高的异质性（ = 0.004； = -0.093）。在言语和视觉记忆、复杂句法结构以及心理理论相关的内部状态术语之间观察到显著关联。多动症症状与简单和并列从句的生成呈负相关。最后，复杂句法和延迟的视觉空间工作记忆与复述总分相关，表明语言能力和言语记忆可以补偿HF-ASD儿童的叙事能力。：研究结果突出了语言技能、记忆能力和多动症症状对HF-ASD儿童叙事能力的影响，以及叙事在评估轻度语言障碍人群语言技能方面的重要性。
