About

Matthew Carl Zajic is an Assistant Professor of Intellectual Disability/Autism at Teachers College, Columbia University, with affiliations in Health Studies and Applied Educational Psychology. His primary research focuses on understanding and supporting the writing development of autistic individuals across the lifespan. He aims to bridge foundational research to practical applications, ensuring that findings are accessible and actionable for children, caregivers, and educational professionals. His work centers on four main pillars: theory, development, measurement and assessment, and instruction and intervention. Zajic adopts interdisciplinary approaches from writing, autism, and literacy research to examine the intersections between linguistic, cognitive, and social demands of writing and the diverse profiles of autistic learners. Methodologically, he draws on both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with expertise in mixture modeling, psychoeducational assessment, lifespan/longitudinal studies, and systematic reviews. His broader interests include academic and skill development in autistic individuals, writing development for learners with other disabilities, neurodiversity-affirming frameworks, and advanced assessment and measurement methods in educational psychology and special education. Zajic is actively involved in ongoing projects investigating literacy experiences of autistic youth, teleassessment methods, writing modality impacts, and the relationship between personal interests and writing achievement. He is accepting new doctoral students for the 2026 Fall semester.

Research topics

• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Linguistics
• Computer Science
• Cognitive psychology
• Mathematics education

Selected publications

• Examining Reading and Writing Educational Goals of Autistic School-Age Children Using Co-Occurrence Latent Class Analysis (Poster 2)

  2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Prevalence and Predictors of Caregivers’ Reports of Academic, Language, Social, and Behavioral Individualized Education Program Goal Domains Among School-Age Autistic Students

  The Journal of Special Education · 2025-04-19 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  The aims of this study were to (a) characterize the prevalence and interrelationship of Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals in academic (reading, writing, math) and developmental (language, social skills, behavioral) domains in a large U.S. national sample of autistic children across the elementary and secondary grade levels and (b) examine how demographic and developmental factors predict having at least one IEP goal in each domain. Primary caregivers of 551 autistic students completed survey questions about demographic, developmental, and educational services and supports information. Findings highlighted the heterogeneity of IEP goals across academic, language, social, and behavioral domains with odds of having at least one goal in specific domains most consistently related to differences in classroom placement, adaptive behavior, grade level, and region.

  PublisherDOI

• Sensory Processing Modalities and Their Associations With Academic Achievement in Autism and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · 2025-12-29 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Atypical sensory processing is common to both autistic children and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some studies also suggest that atypical sensory processing may be related to academic achievement in both groups of children. However, these studies have primarily focused on overall patterns of sensory processing, as opposed to modality-specific processing (e.g., auditory), and has relied on parent report for both sensory processing and academic achievement measures. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the processing of specific sensory modalities is related to direct measures of academic achievement in autistic, ADHD, and neurotypical children. 74 autistic children (22 with a co-occurring diagnosis of ADHD), 34 children with ADHD, and 40 neurotypical children between the ages of 10–18 participated in this study. Parents completed reports of sensory processing, and autism and ADHD symptoms. Children completed measures of auditory processing, reading and math achievement, and IQ. Autistic and ADHD children showed similar levels of atypical sensory processing, and varied patterns of associations between atypical auditory processing and academic achievement were observed in both groups. Sensory processing differences may impact the academic learning of both autistic and ADHD school-aged children. As neurodivergent children are integrated into general education classrooms, it is important to understand how environmental factors may impact learning opportunities for these individuals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Examining Reading and Writing Educational Goals of Autistic School-Age Children Using Co-Occurrence Latent Class Analysis (Poster 2)

  2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Does composition mode matter? Comparing students’ handwriting, keyboarding, and speech-to-text dictation performance

  Reading and Writing · 2025-11-24

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Characterizing the Special Education Goals of Autistic Students: Latent Class Analysis With Demographic and Developmental Covariates

  Exceptional Children · 2025-05-15 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Many autistic children receive special education services via Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) that include specific educational goals and needs. Prior research has examined programming options available to support autistic students, but less is known about their educational needs across academic and developmental educational goals. Additionally, existing approaches have often relied on small studies focused on describing individual goal areas. This study uses data from 551 families from across the United States with an autistic child in grades K-12 and latent class analysis to (a) identify latent, or underlying, subgroups based off multivariate response patterns across educational goals endorsed in six domains (reading, writing, math, language and communication, social skills, behavior), and (b) examine if demographic and developmental covariates predict latent class membership. We identified five latent classes: All Goals (40.49%); Autistic Characteristics (21.63%); Language, Literacy, and Autistic Characteristics (18.99%); Academic (13.94%); and Language and Communication (4.95%). Two covariates—percentage of time spent in general education and adaptive behavior—predicted differences in latent class membership. Findings offer a comprehensive examination into the heterogeneous educational needs of autistic school-age children. Our results emphasize the need for researchers and educators to understand the educational needs of autistic students beyond the presence of an IEP.

  PublisherDOI

• Examining Language Use and Classroom Factors Among Spanish-English Dual Language Learners in Preschool

  Early Education and Development · 2025-08-28

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Writing Instruction for Students with Disabilities

  2024-05-23

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Longitudinal stability and Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale-2 predictors of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale

  Autism · 2024-12-07

  articleOpen access

  A recent study suggests that parent report on the Social Symptom and Prosocial scales of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale provides useful information about differences in the social development of school-aged autistic children. The current study provides additional psychometric data on the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale regarding the longitudinal stability of its scales, its construct validity, and its sensitivity to differences in the social development of clinical samples of children. The study included 64 autistic children without co-occurring intellectual disability, 27 children with symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and 36 neurotypical children between the ages of 10 and 18 years. Results indicated that scores from parent report on the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale were stable across a 15-month period in middle childhood for the three groups and groups received significantly different Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale scores. Finally, construct validity was supported by the observation of correlations between tester observations of items on Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale-2 Social Affect and subsequent parent report on the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale. These results provide further evidence that the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale provides meaningful and potentially unique information about prosocial and social symptom development of school-aged autistic children.Lay abstractThis study tested a measure designed to capture social development in childhood and adolescence called the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale. This is important to study as most measures of social behavior are for preschool-aged children. We asked parents of 64 autistic children, 27 children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and 36 neurotypical children to fill out a new parent questionnaire designed to assess social skills. Specifically, our measure asks about both strengths and difficulties their child has with sharing experiences, engaging in cooperative efforts with others, and more. It is important to have strengths included in measures, as many autism measures only take difficulties into account. The findings of this study show that this new measure can assess social skill strengths and difficulties in children and adolescents. This measure may be useful in future research to help us understand how strengths and challenges in social behaviors develop or change throughout childhood and adolescence in autistic people.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chapter 16. How Might We Measure That? Considerations from Quantitative Research Approaches for Lifespan Writing Research

  The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado eBooks · 2024-06-10

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Perspectives on Writing series addresses writing studies in a broad sense.Consistent with the wide ranging approaches characteristic of teaching and scholarship in writing across the curriculum, the series presents works that take divergent perspectives on working as a writer, teaching writing, administering writing programs, and studying writing in its various forms.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nancy S. McIntyre

  35 shared

• Peter Mundy

  Corteva (United States)

  28 shared

• Emily J. Solari

  University of Virginia

  27 shared

• Virginia W. Berninger

  26 shared

• Michael Dunn

  26 shared

• Ryan P. Grimm

  14 shared

• Lindsay Lerro

  9 shared

• Alyssa R. Henry

  Southern Methodist University

  8 shared

Education

• B.A., Sociology (Minors in Education/Applied Psychology and Professional Writing)

  University of California, Santa Barbara

• Ph.D., Education (Emphasis in Learning and Mind Sciences; Designated Emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition Studies)

  University of California, Davis

Awards & honors

• Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (Predoctoral)…
• National Center for Special Education Research (Institute of…
• Institute on Mixture Modeling for Equity-Oriented Researcher…