Context effects: discourse structure influences narrative ability in autism and first-degree relatives

Narrative, or storytelling, ability is a well-documented area of difficulty in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is an important skill that is related to social-communicative success. Evidence also demonstrates subtle narrative differences among first-degree relatives of autistic individuals, including parents (ASD parents) and siblings (ASD siblings), suggesting narrative ability may reflect genetic influences related to ASD. Less structured contexts, such as free form narrative retellings (i.e., without scaffolding via visual aids), require individuals to reconstruct a previously told narrative from memory and reflect differences in underlying attention, language, and executive functioning. Narrative retellings are impacted in ASD, though work has yet to examine this ability in first-degree relatives. A prior study employed a first telling narrative task (First Telling) involving simultaneous viewing of a picture book among autistic individuals, their parents, siblings, and respective control groups while collecting eye tracking data to extrapolate attentional mechanisms.

The present study aimed to extend this work by adding an additional less structured narrative retelling (Retell task) to characterize the breakdown in narrative quality between different contexts and assess how narration and visual attention during the First Telling narrative may relate to narrative quality in the Retell task.

As predicted, narrative retellings were less sophisticated than first-telling narratives, and the quality of the First Telling was related to the quality of the Retell narrative for all groups. Some overlapping patterns of narrative quality emerged between individuals with ASD, their parents, and siblings. No associations emerged between visual attention in the First Telling and narrative quality in the Retell task.

Results support previous findings of narrative challenges in ASD and provide evidence that narrative skills may be subtly impacted in first degree relatives, suggesting ASD-related genetic influence on elements of narrative ability. Findings may inform intervention efforts, as the lack of visual supports in the retell task impacted narrative quality in ways that parallel the challenges individuals may face in everyday storytelling and naturalistic conversational interactions.