The Effects of a Bio-Poem Writing Intervention on Middle School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

• In Event: 35.072 - Exploring the Writing Development of and Writing Instructional Needs for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Perspectives
Although people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit considerable variability in terms of writing ability, many tend to perform well below their peers in the area of writing (Bishop, Sawyer, Alber-Morgan, & Boggs, 2015). They may have deficits in writing, including generating ideas, supporting claims with relevant evidence, and providing sufficient detail. Theoretically, children with ASD may experience difficulty with written expression due to deficits in social cognition, including an inability to understand and describe mental states (i.e., theory of mind; ToM) (Brown & Klein, 2011). This may affect other content areas as well; in order to fully engage with the Social Studies curriculum, for example, students must develop perspective-taking skills to help relate to others, identify aspects that are similar and different, and come to a full understanding of how our world has changed over time – all of which require ToM abilities. Unfortunately, little attention has been given to the impact of ToM on the writing of individuals with ASD, with only one known study using a writing intervention to improve the ToM abilities in children with ASD (Mourgkasi & Mavropoulou, 2017).

Purpose
Our goal was to explore the use of a writing intervention (i.e., bio-poems) to both demonstrate social cognition and to display disciplinary literacy. Bio-poems, which were selected because the structure is explicit and repetitive, lending itself to strategic use, but also allowing students to be creative in their word choice, and make meaningful, personal connections with the content being learned.

Methods
We taught the three middle school students with ASD the structure of a bio-poem as they wrote a self-focused bio-poem. Then, students read passages about important figures in history (e.g., George Washington) and used the bio-poem structure to identify important information from the text and analyze the intentions and mental states of the historical figures. Throughout the lessons, mental state terms were discussed, building students’ ToM through inferring the emotions, thoughts, and beliefs of others.

Data Analysis
Ongoing qualitative discourse analyses using both deductive and inductive category application were used to create codes for examination of the content of the dialogue between the participants and the instructor, as well as the bio-poems. Analysis of instructional discourse and bio-poem tasks were analyzed for evidence of understanding of disciplinary literacy, summary writing, and social cognition.

Results
Initial results have revealed several trends; most importantly, that the participants with ASD (1) were able to identify emotions and feelings in others; (2) could use a structured but creative form of writing to demonstrate understanding of concepts and create connections between historical figures and themselves; and (3) could effectively use bio-poems as a means of summary writing.

Scientific/Scholarly Significance
The results of this study should contribute to the literature in the areas of writing, social studies, and ToM for individuals with ASD, and help provide important information for teachers to help their students with ASD access content area information and make meaningful, personal connections that will assist them to develop a higher-level understanding of content information.

Authors

• Kristie Asaro-Saddler, University at Albany - SUNY

• Tammy Ellis-Robinson, University at Albany - SUNY

• Hally Eacker