1. Reading Comprehension and ASD Part 2
Pat Rakovic

2. Use of Video to Support Comprehension

3. Comprehension Strategies
Research shows that the following strategies improve reading comprehension for students with ASD ( research is not extensive!)
Preteach basic factual concepts
“ Primer paragraphs” to present facts
Multiple thematic exposure
Notice and relate content to title
Visualizing through drawing and writing
Explicit instruction of idioms
Anaphoric cuing ( resolution of ambiguity of pronouns)

4. Preparing to Read
Wahlberg found that some people with ASD make bizarre or incorrect connections
The traditional KWL does not work as the K is too broad for the student on the ASD spectrum
Relating the title to the text
Provide a clear title for a passage that does not have a title
Prepare a primer passage that contains all of the main ideas of the passage to be read
After reading, discuss with the reader how the primer passage, the title , and the passage itself all relate to one another.

5. Pre-teach Basic Practical Concepts
The information provided in advance can shift foundational ideas from the unknown to the known, improving familiarity. Familiar material is easier to read and understand.
For narratives, provide relevant facts that are central to the plot, setting, characters, conflict, emotional content, or historical context of a story.
For expository text provide and discuss key ideas that you want the reader to learn from the material before reading.

6. Use of Primer Passages
A primer passage is a basic, facts only passage that creates concrete understanding of the main elements of a story. The primer passage is a summary of the story to be read before reading the story.
It ‘primes’ the reader to understand the material by including explanations that clarify central concepts and the meaning of key vocabulary words.
The key is to keep the primer material succinct and relevant.

7. Sample of a lesson with primer passage
The teacher prepares a short passage on transparency, whiteboard or smartboard
The teacher and students read it together.
The students identify key words and the teacher underlines them and as a group work together to clarify the meaning of the words.
Finally the group writes a one or two sentence summary of the passage that includes the key word.

8. Multiple Thematic Exposure
Use related narratives to crease a solid fact base that helps students make text to text connections to improve understanding.
Choose at least one selection to serve as a primer passage, basic and easy for the reader to understand, at the student's independent reading level.
Ask student to draw pictures or write about each story after it is read.

9. Explicit Instruction of Idioms
Select common idioms
Relevant idioms ( those that are found in the curriculum and selected readings
Make a distinction between idioms that our outdated and those that are currently used. ( bee’s knees/cool)
Use materials that compare both the literal and the figurative meanings of an idiom. Materials with a picture are a plus
When reading text model the opportunity to guess the meaning of an idiom by looking for context clues before looking for the real answer. Teach this strategy to the students.

10. Visualization through Writing and Drawing
Have students create their own visuals in response to a story assists them in story recall.
It can be used as an anchor to help the student orally retell or write about the passage.
Be careful about the drawings: Not all people on the spectrum have good fine motor skills and drawing skills. For those that don’t they might find the use of clip art to be helpful

11. Anaphoric Cuing
Students on the spectrum are unlikely to pause and clarify a word or phrase they do not understand while reading. They read on without realizing that they do not understand
Difficulties with pronouns causes confusion.
The reading skill called anaphoric cuing depends on the reader stopping to clarify the meaning of pronouns and understand to whom or what the pronoun refers to .
The anaphoric cuing strategy uses a visual cue to prompt students to make the match.

12. Anaphoric Cuing Anaphoric Cuing helps the student:
Become more aware of self monitoring for understanding
Teach student to question the text
Improve students ability to ask and answer “ who” questions.
It may help with the understanding and use of pronouns in spoken language.

13. Comprehension IDEA: Roots, Suffixes and Affixes= apply a formula to words
Teach how to break words into parts and memorize roots, affixes and suffixes
Of all the strategies we used, Tom reported that this was the breakthrough for him.
As always, it is wise to start by breaking down the parts of words from the person’s area of intense interest, whether it is Star Wars or weather or trains

14. Text organization Teach to preview text before diving into the book.
Find the visual clues- boldfaced words, definitions. chapter headings, pictures, the type of text
Show the organization of text within chapters (show the author’s order)

15. Cloze procedure
Does a cloze procedure really reveal how well a person reads and understands authentic text?
Full pages?
Chapters?
Whole books?

16. The National Reading Panel Recommendations
Directly teach the skills used by good readers to those that are not good readers
Carefully select techniques based on the age and abilities of the general education students being taught: It might be better for us to look at the pattern of the child’s ability.
Story Mapping and graphic organizers may be promising.

17. Promising Practices: How is Vocabulary Best Taught to students with ASD?
Direct, explicit instruction of unfamiliar or key words BEFORE reading (during or after are second choices).
Choose KEY words important to understanding that will be encountered often.
Focus on words with multiple meanings.
Homographs: Words that look alike but don’t sound alike.
She had a tear in her eye when she got a tear in her dress.

18. Comprehension IDEA The Synonym Strategy
Grows vocabulary, self-monitoring, pre-reading skills, multiple meanings, parts of speech
A tool to instantly clarify word meanings- without a “dictionary”
User-friendly and fast
Takes the dic-straction out of the equation

19. Visual Strategies Highlighting Removable highlight tape
Buy used books already highlighted

20. While reading: Teach Self-monitoring of Understanding
Highlight
Draw
Fill in graphic organizers
Look for answers to questions

21. Comprehension IDEA: Media Strategies
Show movies before reading books
Read plays before reading books
Summarize and sequence the events
Analyze the plot, characters, themes & vocabulary before looking at the same elements in text.
Turn on the closed captions on the TV “mapping of speech onto print”

22. Some Commercial Products
SRA corrective reading
Lindamood Bell’s Visualizing and Verbalizing
There is research on this methodology that is specific to students on the spectrum
Computer Assisted Instruction
Greater interest and motivation
More time spent reading
Visuals with vocabulary word
Read: Outloud