Writing Instruction and Self-Regulation for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may struggle to self-regulate their learning, and such difficulty may be especially notable in the area of written expression. One intervention that has explored self-regulation in writing is the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach. In this article, a review of the research using SRSD to teach children with ASD to write is conducted. Investigation yielded 11 studies including 27 participants with ASD. Results of the review indicated that students with ASD taught using an SRSD approach can improve their overall quality of writing, their discourse elements (e.g., persuasive or story) utilized, and the length of their products. Self-regulatory abilities, such as self-monitoring and planning, were also noted to improve. Suggestions for practice and future research are provided.

Case Studies Comparing Learning Profiles and Response to Instruction in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Oral and Written Language Learning Disability at Transition to High School

“…From an executive function perspective, Jack may have experienced difficulties in self-regulating his behaviors for the task or adopted self-directed goals rather than task-specific goals. Perhaps selfmanagement instruction would help Jack stay on topic and be mindful of his audience more so than the prompting used in this intervention (e.g., Asaro-Saddler, 2016). From a motivational perspective, Jack may have preferred writing about his own interests compared to topics offered by the computer.…”

Improving the Ability to Write Persuasive Texts in a Boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Outcomes of an Intervention

“…The authors compared three persuasive baseline essays with three post-intervention texts and found evident improvements, both in qualitative and quantitative aspects, which gives support to the effectiveness of the POW + TREE approach. Asaro-Saddler [18], after reviewing 11 studies investigating the specific strategy of SRSD used in the writing instruction of learners with ASD, found that these students improved their planning ability, the number of written elements, and the content of their writing when using the self-regulated strategy.…”

Effects of intervention on handwriting accuracy and speed for elementary students with autism spectrum disorder

“…Prior reviews of writing intervention for students with ASD have not included handwriting studies-instead focusing on spelling and sentence construction (Pennington & Delano, 2012) or self-regulated strategy instruction for composition (Asaro-Saddler, 2016). Four prior studies (Batchelder, McLaughlin, Weber, Derby, & Gow, 2009;Cosby, McLaughlin, & Derby, 2009;Harris, Little, & Akin-Little, 2017; Moore et al, 2013) have applied handwriting intervention for students with ASD using various forms of antecedent instruction and consequence-based procedures.…”

“…Research has described various specific difficulties with speed, spacing, alignment (Hellinckx et al, 2013) and size (Rosenblum et al, 2016). Considering the tendency of students with ASD to use unsophisticated sentence structure (Myles et al, 2003) and produce shorter, lower quality composition (Brown et al, 2014;Zajic et al, 2018), it is not surprising that most intervention research has focused on spelling, sentence construction, or extended composition for this population (Asaro-Saddler, 2016;Pennington & Delano, 2012). The published literature available on handwriting interventions for students with ASD has been narrow in scope: A total of four studies have targeted acquisition of accurate handwriting within first names of one adolescent (Batchelder et al, 2009) and five early elementary students (Cosby et al, 2009;Harris et al, 2017;Moore et al, 2013).…”

“…Asaro-Saddler, 2016;Pennington & Delano, 2012), studies across all categories used singlesubject design, thereby bolstering comparisons between studies. Nearly all studies used repeated performance measures during intervention, making it easier to detect experimental effects.However, no study provided sufficient details to determine the total dosage of intervention over time.…”