Abstract
Writing is often difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet relatively little literature exists that profiles specific strengths and needs within this area. This preliminary investigation compares the written language skills of adolescents with ASD without intellectual disability (n = 14) to typically developing (TD) adolescents (n = 12). Writing samples from persuasive, expository, and narrative genres were elicited. Variables of sample length, writing productivity, syntax, lexical diversity, and macrostructure were analyzed. In the persuasive and expository genres, the ASD group scored significantly lower than the TD group on sample length and some aspects of macrostructure. The ASD group scored higher than the TD group on lexical diversity in the persuasive genre. Other comparisons yielded large effect sizes but were not statistically significant.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the adolescents and families who participated in the study. We also thank Megan Black and Megan Schmidt for their assistance with data collection, as well as Hannah Martin, Kathleen Gildea, and Jordan Thompson for their assistance with data coding. This research was supported in part by a Provost Internal Research Grant from Western Carolina University.
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JP conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and drafted the manuscript; GM participated in the design of the study and critically reviewed the manuscript for important content; KC participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analyses; JJ participated in data collection and coding and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Price, J.R., Martin, G.E., Chen, K. et al. A Preliminary Study of Writing Skills in Adolescents with Autism Across Persuasive, Expository, and Narrative Genres. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 319–332 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04254-z
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Keywords
- Written language
- Writing samples
- Adolescents
- Autism spectrum disorder