Research Redux

Why do we know so little about teaching
reading comprehension to children with
autism?


Because there have been very few studies.
The study I mentioned last time by Chiang
and Lin (2007) searched for research on the 
topic. Of 754 studies that touched on autism 
& reading, only 11 included at least one 
participant with autism, 
focused on reading comprehension, and 
used an experimental model to test
the effectiveness of the method.


Add in the fact that reading
comprehension meant either sight word
recognition or text comprehension,
and it becomes obvious why there
is no consensus (to put it mildly)
on how to teach text comprehension
to children with autism.


For the most part, all methods
-which ranged from flashcards
to peer tutoring to the 
UCLA reading & writing
program to computer instruction - 
helped students learn "targeted skills."


This is good news, because
all the interventions showed results. 
But as a guide to what to do, 
these studies all fall short since
there is no comparison
and so no indication
what intervention
works best.


And the authors found
no, 0, zilch  studies on 
teaching reading comprehension to 
students with Asperger's,
and little on students
with high functioning
autism.


Next post, silly poems.


-Spectum Mom


Thanks to Kayla Jackson (Speech Therapist/
Independent Consultant/Brown Center)
for bringing this article to my attention.
If you would like to read the article in
full, check http://foa.sagepub.com/cgi/
content/abstract/22/4/259