Directed Reading:Thinking Activity and Reading Skills For Students With Autism

The Directed Reading is a routinized and systematic reading comprehension strategy that can be adapted for students with autism to provide them with the support they need to become successful readers. The adaptation of this strategy for these students addresses the literalness and visual strengths of these individuals and promotes skills for lifelong reading comprehension. This research-based instructional support not only teaches reading comprehension but also allows for social engagement in reading discussion, skills necessary for students with autism. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder possess heterogeneous traits and learning styles. While each student with ASD has unique instructional needs, all have primary deficits in language and social skills. Some of these students decode with ease, and some read falteringly. Individuals who are fluent readers, but do not understand what they read, might exhibit hyperlexia. Since most students with ASD are literal thinkers, reading strategies must address their individual needs. Visual prompts, structured. multi-sensory instruction, and teacher modeling are beneficial techniques. The Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is a research-based, intentional reading strategy with several components. Implementation of this strategy in a routinized and systematic order, with explicit and direct instruction, can increase reading comprehension skills for students with autism. Specific skills assessed include: making predictions and connections, answering literal and figurative inferential "wh" questions regarding the text, and utilizing graphic and non-linguistic aids to support reading. 

In this session, the presenters will model a reading lesson, including a sampling of all of the components. The participants will be asked to engage in the lesson to experience the instruction. The NICHD (2000) determined that certain aspects of reading comprehension must be taught explicitly and directly so that students will learn these skills and generalize them to other settings. The recommended strategies are: making predictions, activating prior knowledge, utilizing visual prompts, organization of information with graphic organizers, making connections with the text, and eliciting group discussion. In this presentation,these strategies are adapted for students with autism, in conjunction with an adapted version of a high interest, low readability classic novel. The strategies presented can be changed according to grade level and achievement level. 

The presenters are dedicated to adapting research-based methods for students with autism so that Special Education teachers will have a plethora of practical applications available for meaningful instruction. Thus, participants in this presentation, will take with them hand-outs, routines, and ideas to support the reading comprehension skills and communicative competence of their students with autism.