en Speech and Language Therapist Speech and Language Therapist Original Research Original Research <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Background: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show prominent deficits in pragmatic aspects of language such as spoken narrative. Deficits in spoken narrative in school years lead to deficits in reading comprehension. Therefore, this randomized clinical trial research examined the influence of narrative intervention on spoken narrative and reading comprehension abilities in children with ASD.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Methods:</b> In the current double-blind, randomized clinical trial study, 21 students with ASD from second to seventh grade participated in the study. Two intervention methods were provided three times a week and a total of 24 sessions of 45 minutes. The experimental group received the Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL) program and the control group received Traditional Language Therapy (TLT). The score of macrostructures, microstructures, perspective-taking index, narrative complexity, Story knowledge index, and reading comprehension score were measured pre and post-intervention. ANCOVA was used for between- within-group comparisons analysis.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Results:</b> The experimental group indicated significant improvement in macrostructure (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> < 0.001, &eta;² = 0.614), microstructure (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> = 0.012, &eta;² = 0.303), narrative complexity (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> < 0.001, &eta;² = 0.585), story knowledge index (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> < 0.001, &eta;² = 0.574) and perspective taking index (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> < 0.001, &eta;² = 0.553) compared to the control group. However, the difference between the two groups in reading comprehension skills was not significant in post-intervention (</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt">P</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"> = 0.457, &eta;² = 0.031). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Conclusion:</b> The results showed the efficacy of the three stages of the SKILL program compared to TLT in spoken narrative. Also, the results of the study showed that the SKILL program and TLT have the same effect on improving reading comprehension.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Autism Spectrum Disorders, Narrative Intervention, Reading Comprehension, Language, Language Therapy 846 853 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-8875-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Elham Masoumi e-masumi@razi.tums.ac.ir 200319475328460089619 200319475328460089619 Yes Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Zahra Soleymani soleymaniz@sina.tums.ac.ir 200319475328460089620 200319475328460089620 No Faculty of Linguistics, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran Yahya Modarresi ymodarresi@gmail.com 200319475328460089621 200319475328460089621 No Faculty of Linguistics, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran Saman Maroufizadeh Saman.maroufizadeh@gmail.com 200319475328460089622 200319475328460089622 No Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran Farnaz Mohseni farnazmohsenikhalaji@gmail.com 200319475328460089623 0009-0004-4934-9067 No Trained Speech and Language Pathologist, Tehran, Iran