“BREATHING THROUGH OUR WORDS”: REFLECTIONS BY AUTISTIC AUTHORS ON THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF CREATIVE WRITING

Lawrence, C. (2026) “BREATHING THROUGH OUR WORDS”: REFLECTIONS BY AUTISTIC AUTHORS ON THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF CREATIVE WRITING. INTED conference. ISSN 2340-1079

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Abstract

Research within the autistic community suggests that creative writing may have the potential to enhance a sense of belonging, build self-confidence and improve management of distress and overwhelm for some autistic people. This study explores this further, working with three writers from the UK-wide Beyond the Spectrum initiative that engages published autistic authors to facilitate creative writing workshops for autistic people. Participants in the study created a piece of ‘free writing’ (i.e. not edited or crafted) to explore how their autism impacts their writing experience, and this was then subjected to ‘poetic transcription’ by the researcher, herself an autistic senior academic. Findings include that these autistic writers value the intensity of their autistic interests as a source of material and of intense focus within their writing, that autism impacts their creation of character, writing supports processing of memories and sensory stimuli and – importantly – is a source of satisfaction, empowerment and joy. Ways that writing, including the use of poetic transcription, may be a valuable source of communication and expression for some autistic people are considered.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Published by IATED in 2026. This is the final published version of an article available at https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2026.1913. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Divisions:	School of Teacher Development
Depositing User:	Clare Lawrence
Date Deposited:	26 Mar 2026 11:18
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2026 16:02
URI:	https://lbro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1313

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