The ARWN
Study
A multi-session exploration of how adolescents experience, develop, and find meaning in their writing. Here's what to expect.
Across five in-person sessions, you'll complete reflective interviews, fill out questionnaires, and take part in short assessments. Every session is designed to be engaging, conversational, and centred on your unique experience as a writer. Below is a full breakdown so there are no surprises.
Your Journey, Step by Step
Tap any session to see what's involved.
Recruitment & Initial Meet
Screening Questionnaire
A parent or guardian completes a short screening form to confirm eligibility for the study.
Introductory Meeting
We'll sit down with you and your parent/guardian to walk through the entire study, answer all questions, and complete consent forms. We'll also outline everything that needs to be done before Session 1.
Exploring Writing Through Your Eyes
To complete before this session
- Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd Ed (SRS-2) — from parent
- Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Ed (Vineland-3) — parent form
- Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory (CATI) — from participant
- Upload and bring an example of good writing
Cognitive & Achievement Measures
- Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, 2nd Ed (KBIT-2)
- Woodcock-Johnson V — sentence writing fluency, decoding, and reading fluency
- Typing/handwriting fluency via 1-minute sentence copying
Exploring Writing Through Your Eyes
This opening interview builds rapport and explores your relationship with writing. You'll share the writing sample you brought, discuss why you chose it, and reflect on your feelings, motivations, and experiences around writing. The session closes with a short video on writing communities to set the stage for future conversations.
Exploring Notions of "Good Writing"
To complete before this session
- Monotropism questionnaire
- Writing engagement surveys (E-EAWAQ, E-PDWTQ, E-SPWW) — filled out by teen
Reading & Writing Measures
- Test of Word Reading Efficiency, 2nd Ed (TOWRE-2)
- Test of Written Language 4th Ed (TOWL-4; Form A, handwritten) — all subtests
Exploring Notions of "Good Writing"
You'll reflect on what "good writing" means to you in different contexts — your motivations, internal and external influences, how your definitions of quality shift depending on audience or purpose, your experience with tools like AI, and your ideal writing conditions.
Learning to Write
To complete before this session
- Writing Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) — from participant
- Writing Tools Questionnaire — from participant
- School-age writing experiences fillable worksheet
Language & Creative Writing
- Creative writing task #1
- Woodcock-Johnson V — Picture Vocabulary, Oral Comprehension, Oral Language Samples, Story Comprehension, Sentence Repetition
Learning to Write
Using a developmental timeline from early childhood through high school, you'll trace how your writing skills have grown over time. You'll reflect on key learning moments, helpful and unhelpful supports, and the "bright spots" in your writing instruction across home and school settings.
Writing Communities
To complete before this session
- Connors questionnaire
- Sensory subscales of Writing Engagement Survey — from participant
Writing & Cognitive Measures
- Test of Written Language 4th Ed (TOWL-4; Form B, typed)
- Cognitive Assessment Battery (CAB)
Writing Communities
Starting with a short video, you'll explore your experiences within writing communities both in school and beyond — collaborative writing, tools, strategies, social dynamics, online groups, peer chats, and creative circles. The conversation examines how emotions, identity, environment, and social supports shape your writing practice.
Revisiting & Expanding Writing Reflections
To complete before this session
- Marsh's Self-Concept Scale (1992, adapted) — from participant
- Strengths Questionnaire (adapted from Bellier, 2015) — from participant
Creative Writing
Creative writing task #2
Revisiting and Expanding Writing Reflections
In this closing session, you'll return to your original writing sample from Interview 1 and explore whether your perspective on that piece has shifted. You'll reflect on purpose, process, and emotional impact — then share a new writing sample and compare the two pieces, describing what has changed in your writing approach, identity, and growth as a writer throughout the study.
