Autism Online: A Comparison Of Word Usage In Bloggers With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

The Internet has become a place of refuge for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASP). In particular, weblogs are a popular option for personal expression via the Internet. Perhaps this means of communication is well suited to bypassing deficits in social interaction and communication that characterize ASD. Using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionaries [10], we compared blogs of individuals with ASP to the writing of neurotypical (NT) bloggers. We found that rates of word usage were nearly identical in the two groups with one exception - there was more variation in the use of social words in ASP compared to NT blogs. This similarity in language between ASD and NT authors suggests that communication deficits routinely found in people with ASP may. be due to the social context in which their communication skills are tested, and that the affordances of asynchronous computer-mediated communication may offer alternative means of testing and expression.