Running head: ACHIEVEMENT PROFILES AND GROWTH TRAJECTORIES 1 Reading and math achievement profiles and longitudinal growth trajectories of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder Xin Wei, Elizabeth R.A. Christiano, Jennifer W. Yu, Mary Wagner, and Donna Spiker SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025, U.S. A. Citation: Wei, X., Christiano, E., Yu, J., Wagner, M., & Spiker, D. (2015). Reading and math achievement profiles and longitudinal growth trajectories of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 19(2), 200-210. doi: 10.1177/1362361313516549 Corresponding author: Xin Wei, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, BS169, Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493. E-mail:
[email protected]. Phone: (650) 859-5318. Fax: (650)859-3092. Acknowledgement: This research was supported by Grant R324A120012 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences and Grant HRD -1130088 from the National Science Foundation. However, any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the positions or polices of the funding agency. ACHIEVEMENT PROFILES AND GROWTH TRAJECTORIES 2 Abstract This study examined the reading and math achievement profiles and longitudinal growth trajectories of a nationally representative sample of children ages 6 through 9 with an ASD. Four distinct achievement profiles were identified: higher-achieving (39%), hyperlexia (9%), hypercalculia (20%), and lower-achieving (32%). Children with hypercalculia and lower- achieving profiles were more likely to be from low socioeconomic families and had lower functional cognitive skills than the higher-achieving profile. All four profiles lost ground in passage comprehension over time. Slower improvement occurred for the higher-achieving group on letter-word identification, the hyperlexia group on conversation abilities, and the hypercalculia group on calculation and functional cognitive skills relative to the lower-achieving group.