Brief Report-Written Personal Narratives of Autistic and Non-autistic Women: A Linguistic Analysis.
Autistic women in college write complex, nearly error-free stories and feel good about writing.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Merken et al. (2025) asked autistic and non-autistic women to write a short personal story.
They counted words, grammar errors, and story parts like climax.
All writers were university students.
What they found
Autistic women used longer sentences and made fewer grammar mistakes.
Their stories were less likely to have a clear high point.
Still, they said they enjoyed writing more than the other group.
How this fits with other research
Llanes et al. (2020) saw autistic children write weaker, error-filled stories.
The new study flips that picture for adult women: fewer errors and richer language.
Baixauli et al. (2016) pooled 24 studies and found narrative gaps in youth; Florence shows grown women can out-write peers on some metrics.
Kauschke et al. (2016) found autistic girls use more feeling words than autistic boys; Florence finds autistic women keep that strength.
Why it matters
Do not assume poor writing once your autistic clients reach college.
Check both grammar and story structure: they may excel at one and need help with the other.
Use their love of writing to build self-advocacy essays or social stories.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We compared short stories by autistic (n = 19) and non-autistic (n = 23) university students. We used automated software and content analysis to code students' stories. We found that writings were more similar than different. However, autistic students' stories were rated at a higher reading level (p = .013) than non-autistic students'. Autistic students' stories contained fewer grammatical errors (p = .02) but were less likely to include a climax (p = .026). Autistic students reported more positive writing affect than non-autistic students (p = .026). Higher writing affect was associated with writing highly fictional texts (p = .03) that contained more sentences (p = .005). Findings suggest writing may be a strength for autistic students and opportunities to write creatively may promote positive affect toward writing.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2019.101471