The effects of an oral narrative intervention on the fictional narrative retells of children with ASD and severe language impairment: a pilot study

A multiple baseline across participants design was used in this pilot study to investigate the effect of an oral narrative intervention on the macrostructure of short fictional narrative retells in children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and severe communication impairment. Four children aged between 6 and 9 years of age took part in the 1:1 intervention that targeted the narrative macrostructure elements of character (who), setting (where+what), problem, internal response (feelings), attempt at a resolution (do), consequence (next) and end. Intervention involved the use of macrostructure icons, modeling, and participants telling the entire narrative each session. An intervention and maintenance effect was demonstrated for three participants using untaught stories but generalization to storybooks typical of classroom use did not occur. In addition, social validity measures indicated that naive observers rated retells as better following intervention. Areas for future research include investigation of generalization to more complex stories, and implementation of the intervention with small groups.