Researchers uncover a distinct narrative pattern in autistic people and their siblings

A study of individuals with autism and their siblings and parents found that autistic individuals and their siblings used fewer causal explanations to connect story elements when asked to tell a story based on a series of pictures. They also used fewer descriptions of the thoughts and feelings of protagonists. The research was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of behavior or interests. People on the autism spectrum tend to perceive and organize information in distinctive ways that can be strengths in some contexts and challenges in others. Among other things, they seem to differ from their neurotypical peers in the way they tell stories—specifically regarding their narrative patterns and abilities.

Research shows that many autistic individuals produce narratives that are shorter or less elaborated compared to neurotypical peers, focusing more on concrete details than on social or emotional aspects. Difficulties may appear in organizing stories into a clear beginning, middle, and end, or in emphasizing the motives, thoughts, and feelings of characters. At the same time, many autistic people display strong memory for facts and may provide narratives rich in precise and specific information.

Study author Kritika Nayar and her colleagues wanted to explore and compare the narrative skills of individuals with autism and their first-degree relatives. They wanted to see whether their narrative skills and styles showed similarities with their relatives who do not have autism.

Study participants were 56 autistic individuals, 42 of their siblings who do not have autism, 49 control participants without autism (who were not related to the autistic participants), 161 parents of autistic individuals, and 61 parents who do not have autistic children.

Overall, there were 58 parent-child pairs in the autism group, and 20 parent-child pairs in the control group. The average age of participants with autism and their siblings and peers was approximately 17–19 years. The average age of parents of participants with autism was roughly 50 years, and the average age of parents of non-autistic participants was roughly 46 years.

Study participants were given a 24-page wordless picture book called “Frog, Where Are You?” depicting the adventures of a boy and his dog while searching for a missing pet frog. The story is comprised of five main search episodes in addition to the introduction, plot establishment, and resolution. Participants were asked to narrate the story page-by-page while viewing it on a device that tracked their eye movements.

All audio files of their narration were transcribed and then hand-coded by researchers. Study authors looked for descriptions of affective states and behaviors of protagonists, and protagonists’ cognitive states and behaviors. They also looked for causal explanations of story protagonists’ behaviors and for causal explanations of protagonists’ feelings and cognitions.

The study authors differentiated between explicit causal language, marked by the use of the term “because,” and more subtle use of causal language indicated by words such as “so,” “since,” “as a result,” “in order to,” and “therefore.” They also looked for the presence of excessive detail and for topic perseveration (whether a participant got stuck on a specific topic) throughout the story. Study authors analyzed participants’ eye movements while telling the story.

Results showed that participants with autism and their siblings used fewer descriptions of affect and cognition, and fewer causal explanations than control participants. They were also more likely to omit story components.

Parent groups did not differ in their overall use of causal language or in how often they described feelings and thoughts (cognition) of story protagonists. However, parents of participants with autism used more causal explanations of story protagonists’ thoughts and feelings (affect), but fewer causal descriptions of characters’ behavior compared to control parents. Results also showed some differences in gaze patterns between participants with autism and their siblings on one side, and control participants on the other.

“Findings implicate causal language as a critical narrative skill that is impacted in ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and may be reflective of ASD genetic influence in relatives. Gaze patterns during narration suggest similar attentional mechanisms associated with narrative among ASD families,” study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism. However, authors note that the eye-tracking metrics used, which focused on the entirety of the book, might have masked certain important patterns of gaze that could unfold over the course of time.

The paper, “Narrative Ability in Autism and First-Degree Relatives,” was authored by Kritika Nayar, Emily Landau, Gary E. Martin, Cassandra J. Stevens, Jiayin Xing, Sophia Pirog, Janna Guilfoyle, Peter C. Gordon, and Molly Losh.