Beyond sentences: Using the expression, reception, and recall of narratives instrument to assess communication in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder

Purpose: Impairments in the social use of language Results: Average performance on the ERRNI was significantly are universal in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but poorer than on the Clinical Evaluation of Language few standardized measures evaluate communication Fundamentals–Fourth Edition (CELF-4). In addition, ERRNI skills above the level of individual words or sentences. scores reflecting the number and quality of relevant story This study evaluated the Expression, Reception, and components included in the participants’ narratives were Recall of Narrative Instrument (ERRNI; Bishop, 2004) to significantly positively related to scores on measures of determine its contribution to assessing language and nonverbal cognitive skill, language, and everyday adaptive communicative impairment beyond the sentence level in communication, and significantly negatively correlated children with ASD. with the severity of affective autism symptoms. Method: A battery of assessments, including measures Conclusion: Results suggest that the ERRNI reveals discourse of cognition, language, pragmatics, severity of autism impairments that may not be identified by measures that symptoms, and adaptive functioning, was administered focus on individual words and sentences. Overall, the ERRNI to 74 8- to 9-year-old intellectually able children with provides a useful measure of communicative skill beyond ASD. the sentence level in school-aged children with ASD.