The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Research shows that children with autism spectrum disorders, while often experiencing great facility with surface reading skills (decoding, rate, accuracy), have significant difficulty with reading comprehension, especially in terms of inferential skills such as drawing conclusions, making predictions, and understanding character emotions and motivation.  Recent studies debunk the notion that children with autism cannot understand emotion and feeling, and thus have difficulty with inferential reasoning and subsequent reading comprehension due to this deficit (Baron-Cohen, 1991). Instead, children with autism understand and feel emotions; they simply do not express and verbalize these emotions in the same way as neurotypical individuals. It is important to tap into a way for children on the spectrum to be able to verbalize and express their understanding of inferential concepts in reading comprehension, and several strategies are suggested to this end in the literature.

As reading comprehension is the end or goal of reading instruction, it is highly critical that educators, parents and clinicians understand how to assist children with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s Disorder to attain comprehension of written text (Gately, 2008). Specific instruction for this group of children should focus on developing higher level inferential comprehension skills by presenting children with opportunities to read, discuss and interact about text (Brown, 2004). Strategies such as guided reading, visual mapping and thinking aloud are excellent methods in which to assist autistic children with non-literal comprehension of a text (Gately, 2008).               

Beyond implementation of specific instructional strategies, the role of choice is significant for reading success (Kohn, 2001). Choice is of even more pressing importance for children on the autism spectrum, especially in terms of allowing children to choose reading and writing materials related to their special interests. When children connect to their own personal interest, reading comprehension as well as reading motivation have been shown to greatly increase (Broun, 2004).

Research also shows that students with autism spectrum disorders need increased instruction that promotes active engagement in order to understand. Often, the need for active learning that is presented by the child with autism is met with a classroom structure that does not support or engage the child (Carnahan, Rao & Bailey, 2009). Instead of a verbal-only, lecture-based environment typical of classroom instruction, children with Asperger’s Disorder and high-functioning autism need multi-sensory, hands-on instruction. Furthermore, it has been shown that technology-based reading instruction as well as technology-assisted response is highly effective to this end (Broun, 2004).                  

Prior knowledge activation before reading is also highly important. When activating prior knowledge and discussing topics prior to reading, teachers and parents should carefully construct the experience so that children focus on the story being read and studied, instead of perseverating on a personal experience. To this end, visual tools such as text maps, picture walking and scanning the text for familiar vocabulary assist children who may have visual preferences (O’Conner & Klein, 2009).

By understanding how to implement quality reading comprehension instruction to children on the autism spectrum, educators and parents will be able to promote overall school and life success, as reading comprehension skills are necessary for all types of learning (Allington, 2001). Our children with high- functioning autism and Asperger’s Disorder possess the abilities to comprehend what they read; it is up to us as educators, clinicians and parents to teach them in a way that resonates with their learning styles, preferences and needs.

Program Content:

The program will be broken into five sections. Initially, participants will review the research base about best practice in reading comprehension instruction for children with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s Disorder (see Research Base above). Participants will explore the importance of connecting with the individual child and creating an environment that promotes the following: student choice, multi-sensory instruction, and meeting the affective needs of the child with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s Disorder.

Next, participants will explore several informal assessment tools that will allow the teacher or parent to understand the specific comprehension needs of the student, the reading level of the student and the particular reading interests of the student.

Next, participants will review the actual instructional techniques suggested by the research base. Participants will learn how to implement the following techniques: guided reading (specifically, activating prior knowledge, picture walking, allowing for multiple reads and summarizing), visual mapping, reciprocal teaching, think alouds, text structure analysis and emotional thermometers.

Next, participants will explore free, technology-based instructional approaches that can promote reading comprehension.

Finally, participants will participate in a hands-on make and take in which they develop hands-on, multi-sensory materials in order to teach the six comprehension strategies listed above. Participants will be able to immediately implement use of their materials in the school, clinical or home setting.