Setting a foundation for literacy and Reading for kids with autism

Emergent literacy skills are the building blocks of learning to read and write. These early skills are essential for all children to learn, but can be particularly important for children with autism or social communication challenges. This is because the areas of literacy where these children need the most help often mirror their areas of difficulty in communication. So when you promote their early literacy skills, you also support their communication.

literacy challenges kids with Autism might face

When developing early literacy skills, children with autism may experience challenges that are related to their challenges with communication. They may need extra support in particular areas, such as:

Understanding – Difficulties with language comprehension, organization and planning can make it challenging to understand what’s happing in a story and how events are unfolding.

Perspective-taking – If your child has difficulty tuning in to the thoughts and feelings of others, he may find it hard to understand the motivation of characters in books or the purpose of print in the environment (e.g. instructions, signs).

Attention – Sometimes difficulties with focus and behaviour can make it challenging to attend to a book.

Seeing the big picture – Sometimes children with autism get caught up in small details so they have difficulty grasping the overall story.

Ways to Spark an Interest in Reading for Children with Autism

One of the most important things you can do to help a child with autism to read is to promote an active interest in reading.

Here are three easy way to nurture your child’s interest in reading:

1. Start early

While it’s ideal for ALL children to develop an enthusiasm for learning to read, it’s especially important for children with ASD. Reading and sharing books together can help not only reading, but also social skills. So start reading early!
Many children with ASD thrive on repetition and routine, so don’t be afraid to read the same story again and again. Each time you read, you can build on pre-reading skills by asking your child to turn the pages, point to different characters or retell the story.

2. Follow interests

Make sure to choose books about topics your child enjoys. If your child loves trucks or sharks, incorporate those aspects of his or her life into the reading process

3. Ask the right questions

Ask comprehension questions suited to your child’s strengths. Children with ASD are usually more capable of answering literal comprehension questions rather than inferential, so focus on Who, What, Where and When questions after reading.

Tips to Help Teach kids with Autism to Read
You’ve piqued an interest in reading and now you face the challenge of how to help your child with ASD learn to read.

Children with ASD don’t always develop early literacy skills in the same order or along the same timeline as other children. Supporting their skills development requires structure and extra patience, but most importantly an acknowledgement of the incremental improvements, no matter how small.

Using direct instruction, repeating skills and strategies, and acknowledging achievement all help motivate children with ASD to learn to read.

Here are helpful tips for teaching kids with autism to read:

1. Provide direct and explicit phonics instruction: Direct phonics instruction for reading requires explicitly teaching the 44 consonant and vowel phonemes in a logical sequenced curriculum. For children with ASD, explicit teaching effectively breaks learning-to-read into manageable chunks.

2. Give very clear instructions: All children get the best chance at success if they understand exactly what they need to do. For many children with ASD, having one step of verbal instruction at a time helps them to prioritize new information.

3. Teach reading comprehension strategies: As mentioned earlier, children with ASD are often better at literal comprehension, requiring them explicitly taught inferential reading comprehension skills.

4. Reward progress

It’s important to acknowledge any improvement in your child’s reading ability, no matter how small.

Steps towards literacy and reading for those with ASD

1) Matching Skills

The ability to match is the foundation of all learning, not just reading. Practice matching simple shapes (of one colour) – circle, square, etc…Graduate to simple objects and then simple pictures. You can create your own, or there are lots of  commercially produced matching games. There are also many free matching games online.

2) Sorting

When matching has been mastered, work on sorting simple objects – popsicle sticks, spoons, toys, socks, clothing, etc…or commercially produced sorting kits.

3) Scrapbooks

Scrapbooks are an excellent way to help children with ASD to organize items in the environment – categorization skills. Scrapbooks can be created with pictures from catalogues, advertisements, photos, labels (e.g. movie covers). Topics might include foods, animals, the house (room by room), toys, clothing, the farm, transportation/vehicles or cartoon characters, focusing on the interests of the child. Again, work towards pointing and sharing attention to the pictures. An alphabet scrapbook is also a good resource – one letter per page and pictures of items that begin with the letter

4) Reading to Your Child

We are all told to read to our children, but if you really want to make a connection, then make sure that you choose stories that your child will understand and that are within her/his experience. Many children like to hear the same story over and over again – it’s O.K.! Hearing the same story can be a very reassuring experience. You can always pair it with a new story and gradually build up the number of stories your child enjoys. As your read, see if you can engage your child in pointing to favourite characters (e.g. Clifford, Thomas) and familiar objects, establishing joint attention. Model the action and assist the child to point gradually fading the assistance

5) The Alphabet

For many children with ASD, learning the letters and their sounds is not a prerequisite skill for reading. Children with autism often learn more efficiently through whole word sight recognition. A combined approach is most effective over the long term. Start with showing your child the names of family members printed on flashcards (2” x 5”). Make sure that the words you teach are relevant and meaningful. Children will want to engage with materials and words that have meaning for them.

6) Personal Books

Creating books for your child can be fun and a very effective way to help her/him to engage in the shared reading process

Using photographs, you can write and illustrate small books about things that are familiar and relevant to your child: the family, your house, favourite foods, pets, going for a visit, holidays, going to the park, etc

When we use familiar materials, we are more likely to achieve attention and comprehension

The use of photographs will also help the child to build memories of persons and events

7) Fine Motor Skills

Every child goes through a scribbling stage – let your child scribble! Pictures for colouring should be large and simple. If you have a good colouring book, you can have pictures enlarged at a copy shop – make multiple copies of the same picture. Keyboards on computers and phones can also be useful tools. Here are some more tips for developing fine motor skills.

Let your child watch you scribble and colour – this is called passive modeling
When your child is ready, work for imitation: | , _ , O and X are the prerequisite strokes for printing
Remember: little hands = little materials (crayons, scissors, paper for cutting)
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