Pragmatics abilities in narrative production: a cross-disorder comparison

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background:

• Narrative competence is essential for social communication.
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and language impairments (LI) often involve communication difficulties.
• Disentangling the specific linguistic and pragmatic contributions to narrative deficits is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare narrative competence in children with ASD, LI, and typical development (TD).
• To investigate the roles of socio-pragmatic and structural language deficits in narrative competence.
• To examine the relationship between pragmatic errors and narrative quality in LI and ASD groups.

Main Methods:

• Comparative study design involving three groups: ASD (n=25), LI (n=23), and TD (n=27).
• Participants were matched for age (6.5-15 years) and non-verbal ability.
• Standardized language scores were used for matching ASD and TD groups; narrative samples were analyzed for semantic richness, story elements, and pragmatic errors.

Main Results:

• Children with ASD and LI produced simpler narratives with less semantic richness and omitted key story elements compared to TD peers.
• Pragmatic errors were prevalent across all groups.
• In the LI group, pragmatic errors correlated negatively with story macrostructure and semantic-pragmatic relevance.
• In the ASD group, pragmatic errors were extraneous but did not impede the narrative's core message.

Conclusions:

• Both structural language skills and socio-pragmatic abilities are vital for developing narrative competence.
• Children with ASD and LI exhibit overlapping narrative deficits despite distinct clinical profiles.
• Understanding the interplay between language structure and pragmatic use is key for supporting narrative development in clinical populations.