An In-Depth Analysis of Expository Writing in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Elizabeth Hilvert, Denise Davidson, Cheryl M Scott
PMID 31104260WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism wrote shorter essays with more grammar errors but used more rare words.
Their overall essay quality matched peers. They struggled more with starting, staying on task, and generating ideas during the writing process.
Key findings
01Children with ASD wrote less productive texts and made more grammatical errors than NT children, but showed no difference in overall writing quality, coherence, or structure.
02Children with ASD used a greater frequency of rare words compared to NT children, despite similar lexical diversity and use of long words.
03Children with ASD were significantly more likely to need experimenter help with idea generation, attention redirection, and prompting to continue writing.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small, and there was substantial heterogeneity in writing ability within both groups. Five children with ASD were excluded because they refused to write or dictated their responses, which may bias the results toward higher-functioning participants. The use of a self-chosen, interest-based topic may have supported the writing quality of children with ASD more than a standard academic prompt would.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that average overall writing quality scores indicate adequate writing skills. Children with ASD in this study produced essays that were rated as high quality as their peers but were shorter and contained more grammatical errors, suggesting that holistic assessments can miss specific linguistic deficits.