1. Reading Difficulties and ASD
Patricia Rakovic

2. Based on the notion of a “ culture of autism”( Mesibov et al
Based on the notion of a “ culture of autism”( Mesibov et al. 2005) the way individuals with ASD think and behave should not be seen as deficits. Rather, literacy experiences should build on each individual’s strengths and interests
Reading instruction therefor requires differentiated instruction and support

3. View thru the ASD lens Be discerning & selective
when reading comprehension
research, data, reports, techniques,
recommendations, and strategies to determine
The Fit with ASD
View
thru the ASD lens

4. Autism, Cognition and Reading Comprehension
Literacy skills provide the foundation for improving quality of life for all regardless of ability of functioning level.
Skilled readers do the following
Access relevant background knowledge
Make inferences
Monitor reading comprehension
Demonstrate fluency
Understand structure and vocabulary of text
Integrate relevant information from their own world to make meaning

5. Autism, Cognition and Reading Comprehension
It is important to have an understanding of the autism to be able to provide quality literacy instruction
Individuals with ASD my be able to fluently decode because of their strength of word calling and decoding but struggle with comprehension.
Characteristics of ASD include differences in
Socialization
Communication
Restricted interests and behaviors

6. Characteristics that impact Reading
Three models of constructs provide insight into the nature of ASD:
Theory of Mind
Executive Function
Central Coherence

7. Theory of Mind
First introduced by Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith refers to two important abilities
The capacity to recognize the thoughts, beliefs, and intentions of others and understand that these mental states are different than our own.
Using this understanding to predict the behavior of others.

8. Theory of Mind
Challenges with perspective taking impacts reading or listening comprehension as one needs to understand how and why a character behaves in a certain way
Literal interpretation of language, intense interest in certain topics and challenges in engaging in shared experiences impact literacy development.
Will have difficulty making predictions and inferences

9. Executive Function
Executive function processes are critical for planning and carrying out goal-directed behavior while tuning out unnecessary distractions or information. Some of these processes include planning and initiation, working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and fluency.
Some individuals have difficulty inhibiting responses or managing impulses
Research suggests that while individuals with ASD are able to access background knowledge, applying the background knowledge across text can be challenging.

10. Executive Function
Monitoring and self-correcting is critical for accurate understanding; difference in attention, memory, organizing and planning may make monitoring and self-correction challenging for individuals with ASD
These differences impact literacy experiences

11. Central Coherence
Neuro-typicals tend to focus on meaning or the big picture
Individuals with ASD focus on the specific details
Weak central coherence impacts literacy development related to making meaning from text, as selecting important details to create a larger picture becomes critical to comprehension
The ability to identify relationships between words, concepts and/or experiences leads to missed connections
As the complexity of text increases the ability of individuals with ASD to integrate information for meaningful purposes may be challenged.

12. Language Comprehension
Differences exist in how individuals with ASD construct meaning from text. These differences include:
Acquiring certain vocabulary forms before others ( i.e, nouns before verbs)
Difficulty using bound morphemes( play versus played)
Challenges with pronouns

13. Examining the Reading Process: What is Reading?
Get on the same page to define, understand and measure reading!

14. Defining Reading
Our definitions of reading guide our understanding and views
Different reading assessments are based on different definitions of things like “comprehension”

15. The Simple View of Reading R = D x C
Reading is the product of the processes
(x not +). It involves language and cognition.
It is not as simple as it sounds, because the processes of decoding and understanding are complex and inter-related
If you can Decode and have Linguistic Comprehension, you are reading!
Gough & Tunmer, 1986

16. The Simple View of Reading R = D x C
Problems can arise with D, C or both →
Problems with “D only” can be called dyslexia
Problems with “C only” can be called hyperlexia
(different than precocious hyperlexia)

17. GOOD DECODING with POOR COMPREHENSION
HYPERLEXIA
“Strong mechanical word recognition with comparatively poor comprehension”
GOOD DECODING with POOR COMPREHENSION
IN PEOPLE WITH ASD
Grigorenko, E. L., Klin, A, Pauls, D. L., Senft, R., Hooper, C., & Volkmar, F. (2002). A descriptive study of hyperlexia in a clinically referred sample of children with developmental delays.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32(1), 3-12.

18. Hyperlexia is a learning disability
Grigorenko, E. L., Klin, A., & Volkmar, F. (2003). Annotation: Hyperlexia: Disability or Superability? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(8),
GOOD DECODING
with POOR COMPREHENSION
IN PEOPLE
WITH ASD

19. A more complex definition of reading National Reading Panel (2005), p
“A form of dynamic thinking [that] includes
interpreting information through the filter of one’s own knowledge and beliefs,
using the author’s organizational plan to think about information (or imposing one’s own organization on ideas),
inferring what the author does not tell explicitly,
as well as many other cognitive actions.”

20. The purpose and the essence of reading
What is comprehension?
The purpose and the essence of reading C R

21. Effective Literacy Instruction
Research has indicated that engaged behavior is the single best predictor of academic gains for students with disabilities
Students with ASD demonstrate differences in executive functioning that make engagement in the classroom challenging

22. Comprehension= Constructing Meaning
Understand the text at the word and sentence level, “word knowledge”
Identify relevant information

23. Comprehension= Constructing Meaning
Relate, compare and integrate to what is already known a.k.a. “world knowledge” or prior knowledge
Internalize to own experience

24. Comprehension= Constructing Meaning
Create a new construct or idea, the gist or meaning
Store the new idea
Retrieve upon demand

25. Factors contributing to reading comprehension
Fluent word recognition skills
Vocabulary knowledge
World knowledge
Comprehension monitoring
Active use of comprehension strategies
Pressley, M. (2001). Comprehension Instruction: What Makes Sense Now, What Might Make Sense Soon

26. What good comprehenders do
Know why they are reading
Understand the point
Relate to prior knowledge
Relate to other text
See cause and effect
Interpret characters’ actions and emotions
Understand the author’s intentions

27. What good comprehenders do
Monitor understanding
Use strategies flexibly and in combination
Re-read
Look back
Predict
Revise/repair
Infer
Summarize
Mark, highlight

28. 5 types of reading comprehension
All five types of reading comprehension may be challenges for readers with ASD who can decode but don’t understand
Literal
Inferential
Critical
Affective
Lexical
(Adapted from Salvia & Ysseldyke, Assessment in inclusive and special education, ninth edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.)

29. 1. Literal comprehension
Understanding explicit material in text

30. 2. Inferential comprehension
Understanding ideas beyond the literal text by interpreting, synthesizing and extending meaning

31. 3. Critical comprehension
Meaning derived by evaluating, analyzing, and making judgments about material that was read.

32. 4. Affective comprehension
Relating to the material at a personal and emotional level.

33. 5. Lexical comprehension
Making sense of text by knowing the meaning of key vocabulary words.

34. Communication The language-literacy link
Understanding oral language
Language processing
Auditory processing
Difficulties with speaking, listening and understanding affect literacy:
reading and writing

35. The language-literacy link
A different timeline/uneven development
Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary
(number of words)
Vocabulary Gap
Literal and concrete vs. figurative, abstract and inferred
Difficulty with images, imagination & imagery

36. Communication Affects Comprehension
Good readers ask questions before, during and after reading.
Generating questions before reading helps establish purpose and focus.
Questioning text while reading helps integrate the material with background knowledge.
Questioning while reading is a way to monitor comprehension.
After reading, good readers ask questions about the meaning of what they read and how to apply the information to their own lives.

37. Shades of Meaning Activity
Teaches synonyms, expands vocabulary
Reveals the hidden meaning behind words
Teaches connotation: the emotion and intention attached to specific words
Clarifies the perspective and intention of characters or the author (social thinking)

38. Shades of Meaning RATE (+ – or =) & RANK (light to heavy)
SLENDER
ANOREXIC
THIN
SKINNY
PLUMP
CURVY
OBESE
PLUS-SIZED
UGLY
UNATTRACTIVE
UNSIGHTLY
PLAIN
INTELLECTUAL
SHREWD
CLEVER
ASTUTE

39. Effective Literacy Instruction
Well implemented instructional strategies can build upon identified strengths.
These include:
Visual spatial processing
Keen awareness of visual and/or cognitive detail
Rote memory
Attachment to routine

40. Effective Literacy Instruction
Well implemented instructional strategies can build upon identified strengths.
These include:
Visual spatial processing
Keen awareness of visual and/or cognitive detail
Rote memory
Attachment to routine

41. Comprehension Activity: Social Thinking and Theory of Mind
In random order, write down two things about yourself that are true, AND one “believable lie” on an index card.
A volunteer will read to the class
Try to guess which statement is not true. Talk about it!
.Relationship to comprehension

42. R &R affects C Poverty of Experience is not experienced only by the poor
Perseveration: The knowledge and experience base in ASD are narrow and deep instead of shallow and wide
Limited background knowledge and exposure to a wide range of topics…and the language that goes with it.
Affects vocabulary, word knowledge, world knowledge and conversation
Disinterest in stories about non-preferred topics, less motivation, less reading:

43. Effective Literacy Instruction
Six categories of instructional strategies with strong evidenced based are:
Organized classroom environment
Visual supports
Structured instruction
Curricular modifications
Embedded supports
Maintenance and generalization planning

44. Effective Literacy Instruction
Two steps to assist in clarifying expectations and reducing competing information are
Segment the space
Clear boundaries to specify the different areas of the classroom
Only relevant materials in each segmented space
Minimize auditory and visual distractions

45. Effective Literacy Instruction
Visual Supports
Provide information that is accessible and stable over time
Reduces anxiety and difficulty around transitions since students are able to ‘see’ upcoming events and activities
One type of these is the schedule, there should be two ( classroom and individual)
Individual is for those that benefit from additional concrete information

46. Effective Literacy Instruction
Visual Supports: Work Systems
Work Systems visually answer four questions
What task or activity is the student to engage in ?
How much work is required OR how long will it take ?
How will the student know that progress is being made or the activity is finished?
What happens next, after the work or activity is finished

47. Effective Literacy Instruction
ABA strategies that are helpful in literacy instruction
Task analysis
Prompting
Reinforcement
Chaining

48. Task Analysis
This involves breaking down complex behavior into its component parts.
Skills can be broken into many steps and taught in a number of phases

49. Prompt
In ABA framework a prompt or a cue ( stimulus) is provided to the student; the child responds, and a consequence follows
Least to most prompts is a prompting strategy that can be used in effective literacy instruction. Least to most prompts may follow this hierarchy:
Gestural
Visual
Verbal
Model
Physical

50. Reinforcement
Reinforcement is used to increase the use of a target skill or behavior. It is the contingent presentation of a reinforcer immediately following a student’s use of the skill
To effectively use positive reinforcement, teachers must first establish a target skill and performance criteria
The steps in a task analysis form a behavioral chain that can be taught. The process of reinforcing responses that occur in a sequence to form complex behavior is called chaining

51. Contexts for Building Emergent Literacy Skills
Shared Book Reading
Style of book reading in which the adult and child have rich conversations about the content and pictures in the text
Interactive or dialogic book reading
Dramatic Storytelling and Retelling
Activity in which children invent and act out stories or retell stories heard or read
Interactive Routines
Predictable, repeated actions written down as a schedule or chart

52. Contexts for Building Emergent Literacy Skills
Music and movement
Enlarged print versions of lyrics written as interactive charts
Language Experience activities
Activity in which the teacher guides a discussion and written record of shared experience
Signing-in and signing-up
Activity in which children write their name on a piece of paper when they come to school in the morning or for turn taking purposes
Games
Type of play for targeting emergent literacy skills

53. Use of PowerPoint to Create Stories
PowerTalk PresentationPowerTalk.ppt
tom_sawyer_ce.ppt
..\I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a.ppt