Reading - Part 1: Comprehension
-Word identification and language processing of words into a message must occur in reading.
-Comprehending a message beyond the literal meaning of the text requires facility with story structure, inferencing skills, and the ability to monitor comprehension.
-Reading comprehension involves inferencing and attention, a purpose, and prior vocabulary and topic knowledge.
-A person with autism may develop good word recognition skills but have very poor comprehension of what is read.
-Shifting attention from word recognition to the text message may be difficult.
-Word and sentence meaning may be present but the message of the whole text may not.
-Focus may remain on details/single words rather than a coherent whole.
-Syntactic skills may be strong while semantic skills may be weak.
-Underconnectivity may play a part in poor comprehension.
-Memory deficit may play a part in poor comprehension of longer text.
-Rote memory may be strong.
-Complex text that requires organizational strategies for memory may be difficult to comprehend.
-Expository text may be prefered (factual/scientific).
-More abstract narrative text may be very difficult to understand.
-More abstract narrative text that requires social understanding/reasoning may be very challenging.
-In Hyperlexia advanced word recognition skills develop but poor comprehension skills persist.
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Reading - Part 2: Narrative
-Word and sentence meaning may develop but complex and abstract narrative are often undecipherable.
-Narrative Discourse involves interpretation of problems and solutions, characters' beliefs and intentions, abstract themes, and plot development.
-Narrative Discourse reflects life experiences.
-Narrative discourse skills develop in early childhood with bedtime stories and picture books.
-To construct extended and coherent narrative a person must have an understanding of emotions.
-Understanding narrative has an impact on social-emotional and communicative competence.
-Narrative competence is important for academic success.
-A person with autism may find the pragmatic aspects of language difficult in narrative.
-The communicative intent in narrative may not be understood.
-Relating to the social context in narrative may be difficult.
-When retelling stories fewer causes may be included.
-When retelling stories fewer effects related to characters' emotions may be included.
-When retelling stories more simple forms of syntax may be used.
-It may be difficult to identify characters' emotions and perspectives.
-Limited working memory may cause difficulty in narratives.
-Identifying word meaning in context may be a challenge in narratives.
-Text coherence may be difficult when reading narratives.
-Developing skills in linguistic processing of sentences may be helpful.
-The use of visual imagery may be helpful for sentence comprehension.
-Facial expressions rather than knowledge of mental states may be used to identify emotions.
-Delay in concept formation may impact narrative understanding.
- Reading is related in various ways to other features of autism. Please see the Social Interaction Feature, the Perspective Feature, and the Cognition Feature in this web site.
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Links to Resource/Research Information:
- Belmonte, M., Human, but More So: What the Autistic Brain Tells Us about the Process of Narrative, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 2005.
- Chan, J., O'Reilly, M., A Social StoriesTm Intervention Package for Students with Autism in Inclusive Classroom Settings, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2008 Fall; 41(3): 405-409.
- Osterling, A., Improving Reading Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, The Science of Learning, 2/17/2011.
- Prizant, B. M. (2015) Uniquely Human. Simon & Schuster: New York, New York.
- Randi, J., Newman, T., Grigorenko, E., Teaching Children with Autism to Read for Meaning: Challenges and Possibilities, Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders, 2010 Jul; 40(7): 890-902.
- Vicker, B., Reading with Your School-Age Child: Building Vocabulary One Word at a Time, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, The Reporter, 14(3), 11-14.
