title: Narratives of Girls and Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Gender Differences in Narrative Competence and Internal State Language.
abstract: Since gender differences in the symptomatology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not well understood, the current study examines the communicative skills of males and females with ASD. Narrative competence and internal state language (ISL) was investigated using narrations elicited by a wordless picture book. 11 girls and 11 boys with ASD and 11 typically developing girls were individually matched. Although results demonstrate largely comparable narrative skills across groups, the groups differed with respect to the size and use of ISL: Girls with ASD verbalized and motivated internal states more often than boys, and both groups with ASD fell behind typically developing children in production of affective words. Implications for the clinical presentation of males and females with ASD are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of German Linguistics, Clinical Linguistics, University of Marburg, Wilhelm-Röpke-Straße 6A, 35032, Marburg, Germany. kauschke@uni-marburg.de.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kauschke
authors.affiliation: Department of German Linguistics, Clinical Linguistics, University of Marburg, Wilhelm-Röpke-Straße 6A, 35032, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van der Beek
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, 35032, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kamp-Becker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000523:psychology*; D033262:Narration; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; Coherence; Cohesion; Communication; Gender; Internal state language; Narratives