Brief Report: Investigating Relations Between Self-Concept and Performance in Reading and Math for School-Aged Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The team asked kids how good they think they are at reading and math. Then they gave real tests in both subjects.

They compared two groups: students with autism and typically developing classmates. All kids were school-age.

For typical kids, self-ratings matched real scores in both subjects. If a child said 'I'm good at reading,' the test usually agreed.

For students with autism, the match only held for math. Their reading self-ratings did not predict actual reading scores.

Tonizzi et al. (2023) pooled 13 studies and found autistic youth score lower on math tests. McCauley et al. (2018) adds that these students still judge their math skill accurately.

Plaisted et al. (2006) and Fleury et al. (2018) both show reading scatter in autism. The new twist: kids can't reliably tell you where they stand in that scatter.

Johnson et al. (2009) saw autistic youth under-report autism traits. The same 'self-report gap' now shows up in reading skill.

Don't trust a student's word alone when you plan reading goals. Pair every self-rating with a quick curriculum-based measure. Use the student's math self-rating as a conversation starter, but still probe for visuospatial versus word-problem strengths.