Teaching Kids with Autism How to Read
7:36 AM
You probably already know that autism can affect a child’s
language and social skills. This may in
turn affect their reading readiness, comprehension skills, and how they generally
learn. This has teachers and parents scratching their heads: How do we teach
these kids to read?
Okay, so we know that teaching a child with ASD to read may
pose some unique challenges. That’s why it is incredibly important that we give
these children all of the tools they need in order to become successful readers
and writers. Reading can help develop language and listening skills, helping
children not only become better students, but also more successful adults later
in life. And isn’t that our goal as teachers and parents? After all, what
better way to reinforce social and language development than to connect over a
great book together?
Teaching children with autism how to read is such a broad
and fascinating topic with growing research. I may later write more posts on
reading instruction with children with ASD because there is so much I would
love to share! It's not just about autism awareness. We need to spread autism acceptance and to learn how to welcome autistic individuals into our classrooms.
Today I’ll focus mostly on beginning reading instruction with students on the spectrum. If you have any ideas or experiences you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
Today I’ll focus mostly on beginning reading instruction with students on the spectrum. If you have any ideas or experiences you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
Sight Words? Phonics?Which Way Is Best?
Read the following words and see if you can figure out what
they all have in common: to, was, one, said, were, there, and could. Any
guesses? Well, if you didn’t notice, these are all examples of words that cannot
be decoded phonetically—i.e., the only way to read these words is to memorize
them. In reality, we as adults have memorized almost all of the words we
encounter in an average day. You haven’t been sounding out each word of this
post, have you? Of course not.
You’re able to read through the post quickly because you’ve recognized the words from having encountered them so many times in your life. Over 50% of the words we typically encounter are high frequency words, or “sight words”. Incorporating fun sight word activities into the day can be a great way to start reading instruction.
You’re able to read through the post quickly because you’ve recognized the words from having encountered them so many times in your life. Over 50% of the words we typically encounter are high frequency words, or “sight words”. Incorporating fun sight word activities into the day can be a great way to start reading instruction.
Some believe that children with autism are only able to
learn via sight word and whole language instruction. But this is silly
and dismissive of their wide range of abilities and potential! Sight word
instruction can be beneficial to children with ASD, but should be just one
piece of a comprehensive literacy curriculum. That said, some students, particularly
those on the spectrum, find it easier and more efficient to learn to read by
recognizing whole words. Sight word instruction can help build fluency and
automaticity, giving the student a feeling of accomplishment and success.
Sight words are pretty handy, but to only teach
sight words without any other reading instruction would be a disservice to our
students. After all, we can’t memorize every word, can we? What about foreign
locations, names, and other words we won’t find on a sight word list? This is
why phonics instruction is not only important, but absolutely essential to any
beginning reader. Students need to be taught how to decode words they do not
recognize. Just as it isn’t possible to sound out every word, we also can’t memorize
them all either. Sight word instruction and phonics skill building can and
should go hand in hand.
5 Strategies for Teaching Children with Autism How to Read:
1. Make it multisensory. Kids with autism learn differently than
their neuro-typical peers. Give them opportunities to visualize, hear, touch,
and interact with the words.
2. Keep it short and simple. Break it down into smaller increments.
Provide concrete examples whenever possible.
3. Read, read, read. And then read some more. The more you read,
the better you read. But did you know that the more you read, the better you write?
And vice versa! So make sure to provide plenty of reading opportunities.
4. Re-read. Nope, not a typo. Re-reading familiar texts strengthens fluency,
comprehension, and decoding skills. Plus, children with ASD tend to prefer
routine and reinforcement, so consider that a win-win.
5. Make it FUN! The most successful student is the one who wants to
learn. Make your students want to learn to read by keeping it
fun!
Get Your Sight Word Freebie!
If you prefer a more kinesthetic approach to sight word
instruction, you might like my Sight Word Playdough Mats, another big hit with the kids.
This one is pretty great
for reading simple sentences containing sight words and “writing” them out in
play dough (or tracing with a finger if play dough is not convenient). If you like getting the most bang for your buck, you might prefer the Early Learning Play Dough Mat Bundle. It’s
fun, it’s hands-on, and it’s great for reinforcing sight word skills. Mark that
on the “Win” column.
I hope you’ve gained some insight pertaining to reading readiness with the autism population. I realize this is just the tip of the iceberg and that there is so much more
than what I’ve mentioned here: decoding strategies, comprehension skills,
writing instruction, differentiation in a general ed classroom… I could have
written a book on this topic! But for the sake of simplicity, I’ll end it here
and revisit this topic in the future. I'll be writing about autism acceptance, teaching techniques in an autism classroom, and more.
Stay tuned at my blog, Teaching Exceptional Thinkers.
Stay tuned at my blog, Teaching Exceptional Thinkers.
Visit my blog at https://teachingexceptionalthinkers.com/ for more fun teaching ideas!
by Christy from Exceptional Thinkers
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