Observing Visual Attention and Writing Behaviors During a Writing Assessment: Comparing Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to Peers with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Typically Developing Peers.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate heterogeneous writing skills that are generally lower than their typically developing (TD) peers and similar to peers with attention difficulties like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent evidence suggests children with ASD spend less time engaging in writing tasks compared to their peers, but previous studies have not examined engagement specifically within the writing task environment. This study used video observation data collected from 121 school-age children (60 children with ASD, 32 children with ADHD, and 29 TD children) to compare differences in visual attention and writing task behaviors and relationships between task behaviors and age, cognitive skills, and ASD and ADHD symptom severity. Findings indicated that groups mostly spent time looking at and writing on the draft, though this was lowest in the ASD group. No differences were found between the ASD and ADHD groups after accounting for task behavior durations as percentages of total used task time. Groups spent little time looking at their outlines and looking away from the task, with all groups spending relatively more time looking at the task picture. Time spent engaged with the draft showed a positive relationship with writing performance across groups, but a negative relationship between time spent looking at the task picture and writing performance only appeared for the ADHD group. The ASD and ADHD groups showed negative associations between draft engagement and ASD symptom severity but not ADHD symptom severity. Implications are discussed for understanding writing task engagement in research and instructional contexts. LAY SUMMARY: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate variable writing skills. Here, we examine how children with ASD engage during a writing task by using video observation data to compare their engagement to peers with and without attention difficulties. Findings indicate (a) lower draft engagement and similar task disengagement in children with ASD compared to their peers and (b) moderate-to-strong relationships between writing scores and ASD symptom severity with within-task engagement in children with ASD and their peers with attention difficulties.

Overt planning behaviors during writing in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: The planning behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during writing remain overlooked. Targeted examination of planning behaviors may help to better understand their heterogeneous writing skills. AIMS: This study examined overt planning behaviors of three groups of school-age children (ASD, ADHD, and typically developing [TD]) during the planning stage of a standardized narrative writing assessment. Aims explored group differences in time spent planning, between- and within-group differences in overt planning behaviors, and relationships between planning behaviors and writing performance as well as age, cognitive skills, and diagnostic symptom severity. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: This study included 121 9-17-year-old children (60 ASD, 32 ADHD, and 29 TD). Video recordings captured overt planning behaviors during a two-minute prewriting planning stage. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Not all participants planned, but group membership overwhelmingly did not influence planning likelihood. Groups differed in time spent engaging with the outline (29 %-70 %), with the TD group spending the most time. Groups spent similar amounts of time looking away from the task (< 10 %) and looking at the task picture (20 %-33 %). The TD and ASD groups demonstrated more similar within-group-level differences in planning behavior s, while the ADHD group appeared more variable. The ADHD and TD groups but not the ASD group showed stronger associations between planning behaviors and writing performance. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Children with ASD and ADHD differed relative to each other and to TD peers in specific planning behaviors. Implications are discussed regarding instructional practices and needed future research to examine planning during writing in children with developmental disabilities.