The Effect of Narrative Intervention on Spoken Narrative and Reading Comprehension Abilities in Farsi-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Abstract

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show prominent deficits in pragmatic aspects of language such as spoken narrative. Deficits in spoken narrative in school years lead to deficits in reading comprehension. Therefore, this randomized clinical trial research examined the influence of narrative intervention on spoken narrative and reading comprehension abilities in children with ASD.

Methods: In the current double-blind, randomized clinical trial study, 21 students with ASD from second to seventh grade participated in the study. Two intervention methods were provided three times a week and a total of 24 sessions of 45 minutes. The experimental group received the Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL) program and the control group received Traditional Language Therapy (TLT). The score of macrostructures, microstructures, perspective-taking index, narrative complexity, Story knowledge index, and reading comprehension score were measured pre and post-intervention. ANCOVA was used for between- within-group comparisons analysis.

Results: The experimental group indicated significant improvement in macrostructure (P < 0.001, η² = 0.614), microstructure (P = 0.012, η² = 0.303), narrative complexity (P < 0.001, η² = 0.585), story knowledge index (P < 0.001, η² = 0.574) and perspective taking index (P < 0.001, η² = 0.553) compared to the control group. However, the difference between the two groups in reading comprehension skills was not significant in post-intervention (P = 0.457, η² = 0.031).

Conclusion: The results showed the efficacy of the three stages of the SKILL program compared to TLT in spoken narrative. Also, the results of the study showed that the SKILL program and TLT have the same effect on improving reading comprehension.