Narrative abilities of autistic and non-autistic adolescents: The role of mentalising and executive function.

ABSTRACT: Spoken narrative skills are important for adolescents in their everyday lives. Previous research suggests that producing well-structured and coherent narratives may be challenging for autistic young people. Mentalising, also known as "advanced Theory of Mind" (ToM) and "Executive Function" (EF) are two cognitive abilities frequently explored in relation to autism, both of which may be implicated in narrative ability. The present study investigated these relationships in a group of autistic adolescents (N = 44) aged 11-15 years and a comparable non-autistic group (N = 54) that did not significantly differ on age, sex, nonverbal cognitive ability, or receptive/expressive language skills. Participants were assessed on a video-based spoken narrative task, scored for both overall structure ("st

SUBMITTER: Harvey A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11782712 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature