Exploring the connection between language use and social experience of autistic adults

Laura Howey is a psychological wellbeing practitioner in the National Health Service (NHS) who works with autistic patients, and is completing their MSc in Clinical psychology at the University of Newcastle. They want to explore the connection between the languages people use, their confidence in social situations, and the connection to the social traits of autism, such as increased anxiety.

Who they are looking for: 

• Autistic and non autistic participants who use more than one language in any capacity
• Formal diagnosis is not required due to the barriers presented by the current diagnostic routes in the UK

Expected commitment from participants:

• Completion of an online questionnaire, consisting of a few measures of language use and social experience
• The questionnaire is anonymous and will take 10-15 minutes
• The median time to complete has been around 12 minutes

Closing date to apply: 1st of June 2026

Being autistic themselves, Laura has designed this study after consulting with Autistica research guidelines, National Autistic Society and other previous research papers. They are using a measure of autistic traits that has been revised by the autistic community before validation (CATI-R). They have tried to make their survey broken down as much as possible. Their recruitment poster is written in understandable language.