The effectiveness of narrative intervention in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder : a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: This paper evaluated the strength of evidence for the effectiveness of narrative intervention on language and pragmatic outcomes for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: The study protocol for this review was pre-registered on Open Science Framework. Ten electronic databases were searched to identify experimental designs targeted school-aged children aged 5;0 to 18;0 with ASD. Forty participants from seven studies were included in this review. All included studies were appraised based on Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist. Results from different outcome measures were synthesized qualitatively based on constructs of outcomes. Results: Six single-case experimental design studies and one group study were included. All studies included methodological flaws that reduced the strength of evidence. The results indicated that narrative intervention might have significant large effects on comprehension of discourse and significant medium effects on production of macrostructure and microstructure compared to pre-treatment. For maintenance effects and other outcome constructs, it was inconclusive whether narrative intervention had true effects. Conclusion: Evidence from this review suggests that narrative intervention may have mediumsize effects on several constructs of language outcomes. Nonetheless, there was no evidence showing those gains could be maintained post-treatment. More high-quality group studies with clearly described treatment procedures are needed.