Comparing the writing skills of autistic and nonautistic university students: A collaboration with autistic university students.

LAY 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.

"For a Long Time Our Voices have been Hushed": Using Student Perspectives to Develop Supports for Neurodiverse College Students.

Although the challenges that autistic students face adapting to college are often pronounced, they are similar to the challenges that students with other disabilities face (e.g., difficulties with social interaction, self-advocacy, and executive functioning). However, extant evaluations of services for autistic college students are very limited despite an emerging literature examining supports for college students with a range of other disabilities. Given that many autistic students do not self-identify as autistic in college, and consequently might avoid autism-specific services, autistic students might benefit from services that are designed to support a broad range of neurodiverse students, or services that are structured according to the principles of Universal Design. In order to develop such services, we assessed the self-reported needs of autistic college students and their peers with other disabilities. Guided by needs assessments and feedback from students, we developed and evaluated two semesters of mentor-led group programming for autistic college students and students with other disabilities. The first semester of the program focused on social skills; after receiving feedback from participants, the curriculum for the second semester focused on self-advocacy. Participation in social-skills groups was associated with decreased anxiety and autism symptoms. Participation in self-advocacy groups was associated with increased perceived social support from friends, academic self-efficacy, and more accurate definitions of self-advocacy. This research suggests that supports for neurodiverse college students should be developed with their input and should include opportunities to engage with diverse peers.

Musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing are linked through sensitivity to pitch and spectral information.

Is the observed link between musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing due to enhanced sensitivity to acoustic features underlying both musical and linguistic processing? To address this question, native English speakers (N = 118) discriminated Norwegian tonal contrasts and Norwegian vowels. Short tones differing in temporal, pitch, and spectral characteristics were used to measure sensitivity to the various acoustic features implicated in musical and speech processing. Musical ability was measured using Gordon's Advanced Measures of Musical Audiation. Results showed that sensitivity to specific acoustic features played a role in non-native speech-sound processing: Controlling for non-verbal intelligence, prior foreign language-learning experience, and sex, sensitivity to pitch and spectral information partially mediated the link between musical ability and discrimination of non-native vowels and lexical tones. The findings suggest that while sensitivity to certain acoustic features partially mediates the relationship between musical ability and non-native speech-sound processing, complex tests of musical ability also tap into other shared mechanisms.