Table 2.
Comparison of Expository Writing in Children with and without ASD
| Variable | Description | Children with ASD M (SE) | NT Children M (SE) |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Productivitya | Total words | 75.83 (11.12) | 112.82 (10.22) |
| Total T-units | 8.38 (1.20) | 11.50 (1.10) | |
| Lexical Complexityb | NDW/50 wordsc | 36.70 (1.33) | 33.70 (1.05) |
| Long words/total wordsd | 0.13 (.02) | 0.12 (.02) | |
| * Rare words/total wordsd | 0.14 (.01) | 0.08 (.01) | |
| Syntactic Complexityb | Subordination index | 1.49 (.14) | 1.83 (.13) |
| Diversity of complex syntax (out of 4) | 2.01 (.23) | 2.63 (.21) | |
| *Grammatical Errors | Grammatical errors/T-unit | 0.26 (.32) | 0.07 (.11) |
| Writing Conventionsa | Punctuation errors/T-unit | 0.52 (.09) | 0.31 (.08) |
| Spelling errors/T-unit | 1.10 (.26) | 0.44 (.23) | |
| Capitalization errors/T-unit | 0.60 (.17) | 0.39 (.16) | |
| Qualitya (score 0–4) | Coherence | 2.35 (.22) | 2.74 (.21) |
| Structure | 1.33 (.17) | 1.73 (.15) | |
| Content | 1.75 (.24) | 2.08 (.21) |
Note. Adjusted means that partial out the effect of the covariates are reported.
Significant main effect of Diagnostic Group.
Although means are reported for all writing variables, composites scores were used when analyzing the following aspects of writing: productivity, writing conventions, and quality.
In contrast, all individual variables described as lexical and syntactic complexity were analyzed individually, as inter-item reliability was low for these composites.
NDW/50 = Number of different words out of 50 words. Only 16 children with ASD and 20 NT children produced texts with 50 or more words, and therefore only those children were included in the analysis for NDW/50.
In line with previous empirical work (Brown et al., 2014), long words and rare words were determined using the following online text analyzers, respectively: http://www.usingenglish.com/resources/textstatistics.php; http://www.wordandphrase.info.