Comparing the writing skills of autistic and nonautistic university students: A collaboration with autistic university students.
Autistic university students can out-write non-autistic peers when given interest-based topics and flexible formats.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bertschy et al. (2020) compared writing skills of autistic and non-autistic university students.
They looked at essay quality, nonverbal IQ, and how much pressure students felt while writing.
Autistic students helped design the study so the tests felt fair and meaningful.
What they found
Autistic students wrote better essays and scored higher on nonverbal IQ tests.
Even so, they said they felt more stress and self-doubt about writing.
Strength and pressure can live in the same person.
How this fits with other research
Cruz-Montecinos et al. (2024) saw a different picture in school-age kids. Autistic and non-autistic children rated their writing confidence the same, yet only the non-autistic group’s confidence matched their actual story scores.
The kids study extends Kristen’s work downward: university students show real skill, while younger students’ skill is less visible and less predicted by confidence.
King et al. (2014) found autistic children wrote shorter, simpler fictional stories. Kristen’s autistic adults out-wrote peers, suggesting growth across the lifespan or a shift from fiction to essay tasks.
Together the papers trace a curve: younger autistic writers may look behind, but with time and support they can surge ahead.
Why it matters
Stop equating autism with poor writing. Ask for the essay before you plan remediation. Offer topic choice, clear rubrics, and calm deadlines. Your autistic college learners may already have the words; they just need space to breathe.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We do not know very much about the writing skills of autistic university students. Studies with autistic children and teenagers show that some autistic young people have difficulties writing. Other autistic people are talented writers. In fact, some autistic people would rather write than speak. Good writers often imagine other people's points of view when writing. Autistic people sometimes have difficulties understanding others' points of view. Yet, autistic people often work much harder to understand others' points of view than not-autistic people do. We collaborated with autistic university student researchers to see if autistic university students are better or worse at writing than nonautistic students. Autistic university students in our study were better writers than nonautistic students. Autistic students in our study had higher nonverbal intelligence than nonautistic students. Autistic students also put themselves under more pressure to write perfectly than nonautistic students did. Autistic students did not show any difficulties understanding other minds. This study shows that some autistic university students have stronger writing skills and higher intelligence than nonautistic university students. Yet, autistic students may be too hard on themselves about their writing. Fun activities that help students explore their ideas without pressure (like theater games) may help autistic students be less hard on their writing. Teachers can help autistic students express themselves through writing by encouraging them to write about their interests, by giving them enough time to write, and by letting them write using computers if they want to. This study shows that collaborations with autistic people can help us understand strengths that can help autistic people succeed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2020 · doi:10.1177/1362361320929453