高功能自閉症兒童個人生活經驗敘述研究

Personal Narratives of High-Functioning Children with Autism

本研究旨在比較19 位平均年齡5 歲11 個月，總智商105 左右的自閉症兒童及19 位對照組普通兒童的個人生活經驗敘述表現。 研究發現：（一）兩組兒童在敘述主題上有明顯差異，自閉症組較常提及虛構的題材或是固執自己有興趣的話題，他們較少談論與手足或同儕相處或直接以對情緒作反思為主題的題材。（二）研究者使用改編的「敘事評定量表」進行分析，兩組兒童在六項量化指標上有顯著差異，依差異程度，由大至小排序是：評價與觀點陳述、敘事合理性、指涉使用、背景描述、主題維持與可按順序述說的事件數目。此外，兩組兒童在「敘事整體類型」上的出現比例也有顯著差異，自閉症組比普通兒童組有較多的「混淆型」與「按順序說」的敘事，但是普通組比自閉症組有較多「具明顯高峰或評價」的敘事。（三）兩組兒童在敘事的若干語言能力指標上，如整體句數、詞數、平均語句長度和連繫詞使用頻率上並無顯著差異。以上研究結果顯示自閉症組敘事的主要問題可能不在語言形式，而在於對於經驗的理解與感受、對個人經驗敘述的功能及對聽者需求的理解等問題。研究者對可能影響因素作討論，並建議後續研究與教學的方向。

The purpose of the study was to investigate the personal narratives of 19 highfunctioning children with autism (full IQ average = 105) and a matched group of children with normal development. The two groups were matched on CA, Full IQ, nonverbal IQ and a standardized syntax comprehension test. The longest narrative of each child was chosen and evaluated by adapting the Narrative Assessment Protocal (Bliss & McCabe, 2003) for this study, and the adapted 5-point rating scale evaluated eight dimensions of personal narrative. The average inter-rater reliability for each dimension was .87. The autistic group was found to differ significantly on 6 quantitative dimensions of narrative performance, and these differences in rank order from the greatest to the smallest were: evaluation, reasonableness, referential skill, background information, topic maintenance, and number of events sequenced appropriately. The two groups also differed in terms of the most frequent narrative patterns used. The autistic group used more “chronologically sequenced” or “disordered” narratives, while the normal group had more “well-evaluated narratives.” The two groups also differed in terms of the topics they shared. The two groups did not differ in total number of utterances, total number of words, MLU and number of different connectives used. Since the two groups were matched for full IQ, nonverbal IQ and syntax ability, a more likely reason for the narrative performance difference might be social-cognitive ability differences, which might affect the appreciation of the functions of personal narratives, as well as understanding of—and ability to evaluate—the experiences reported and awareness of listeners’ interests and needs.