Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have a higher propensity for comprehensive reading problems and will thus need support and help to excel in reading comprehension. For the purposes of the instant research paper, reading comprehension take tripartite meaning as it has three components. The first component is literacy, meaning being able to actually read what is written in a specific language. The second component is being able to understand and appreciate what the child has read. The final component is being able to incorporate what has been read and understood, into what the child already knows. Conversely, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will take a liberal meaning to include a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders and related psychological challenges that affect children (Zajic et al., 2018). The research paper will thus canvass the reading comprehension challenges of children who have been affected by ASD, based on the definitions above. Comprehensive and effective strategies have been developed and are continuously being improved to help ASD children become literate, be able to understand what they read, and subsequently develop knowledge through independent reading. These strategies include but are not limited to the overcoming of related challenges.
The reading comprehension challenges that students with autism spectrum disorder face combine nature and nurture factors, which in most cases supplement one another to limit the reading abilities of a child with ASD (McIntyre et al., 2018). The first challenge is the inability to concentrate on a singular issue for an elongated duration. Becoming literate is a difficult journey that requires investment of quality time that may be a challenge for children with ASD (Carretti et al., 2014). The second challenge is the ability to grasp and understand what is being taught, which also limits the ability of a child to understand figures and numbers, and how they combine to make words and sentences (Weinberg, 2018). The third challenge is social in nature and relates to a limited ability to interact with others. One the one hand, the social challenge limits the teacher-child relationship thus making learning harder. On the other hand, the social challenge interferes with the child’s attention in class and ability to interact with other children in a learning environment (Gunn & Delafield-Butt, 2016). These and other challenges work together to limit the reading comprehension abilities of a child suffering from ASD.
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Teachers, parents, and other professionals have developed effective strategies for overcoming these challenges to enable children with ASD to improve their comprehensive reading. The first strategy is the development of literacy and involves a combination of hard work and patience on the part of the teacher while handling ASD children (Finnegan & Mazin, 2016). Normal teaching in literacy takes time and hard work but ASD children need more of both. Most of the other strategies are geared toward improving understanding and appreciation of text and also the incorporation of text to knowledge (Carretti et al., 2014). Among the key strategies is the use of visual aids such as tables, diagrams and most importantly, pictures and videos. The second strategy is known as thinking-aloud and involves reading a passage together then asking each child to tell the others what they understood about the passage. Reciprocal teaching is another strategy used to assist children with ASD and involves the teacher and students alternating their respective roles (Finnegan & Mazin, 2016). Another strategy involves dramatization of passages where the reading of a passage is followed by a dramatization of what the passage means in order to expand understanding and increase interests in going beyond merely reading. Finally, there is the strategy of retelling, where a child with ASD whose comprehensive abilities have advanced is asked to read a passage then retell it in the child’s own words. The retelling includes not just what the passage says, but also what it means (Carretti et al., 2014). These are just some of the many structured or innovative approaches that have been developed to assist children with ASD become better comprehensive readers.
Literature Review
Reading Comprehension Learning Challenges Facing Children with ASD
According to Henderson, Clarke, and Snowling (2014), children with ASD have an exponential limitation when compared to their peers when it comes to phonological decoding, a fact that severely impairs their reading comprehension abilities. Phonological decoding is the ability to read and understand vocabulary and unknown words, based on the database of words and knowledge in the mind. Most people focus on teaching children how to read and write based on the assumption that comprehensive reading will develop automatically, which it mostly does. However, phonological decoding which mainly comes from vocabulary literacy whether written or oral is integral to reading comprehension (Henderson, Clarke, & Snowling, 2014). Therefore, even when children with ASD learn how to read and write, they will still lag behind their peers in comprehensive reading, due to a phonological decoding challenge.
The study by Henderson, Clarke, and Snowling (2014) was based on an observational qualitative research that included compared children with ASD and their peers. 49 children and adolescents with ASD were compared with 49 peers of the same age and secondary characteristics whose primary difference was the lack of ASD. The testing was based, not on the ability to read but specifically on phonological decoding and reading comprehension abilities. Based on the specific nature of the research study, its results, and discussion, the study does support the conclusions arrived at in a credible and reliable manner.
From a different perspective, Randi, Newman, and Grigorenko (2010) take a technical approach to understand the challenges that children with ASD face with regard to reading comprehension. These children have been found to have problems with language-related cognitive processes including memory, attention, and intelligence, all of which affect their ability to develop linguistic competence. Further, the children have decoding skills, which is the ability to break down a collection of words to come up with the meaning of a sentence or passage. Among the decoding problems include identifying referents which are words that stand for something in the real world, for example, car or driving and plane or flying. A relating problem is the ability to locate and appreciate antecedent events, which are issues relating to the environment of a child. These limitations of seeing internally what they read make understanding harder.
The research undertaken in Randi, Newman, and Grigorenko (2010) was based on a comprehensive literature review that began with hundreds of related primary studies. The researchers carefully selected over 50 of these studies spanning over two decades for use in the literature review. The research and discussion are based on a close reading and careful evaluation of these studies, all of which are meticulously cited. Based on the relevance of the studies, the nature of discussion and the analysis made, the authors have been able to credibly and reliably prove the validity of their conclusion.
Reading Comprehension Strategies that Teachers can use when Teaching Students with ASD
Gostenik (2008) in her study provides an elaborate and comprehensive collection of strategies that can be used to teach reading comprehension to children with ASD. The first step is getting to know the child personally since children with ASD vary exponentially from one another. After understanding the children, the teacher should then develop individualized education plans designed to meet the specific needs of each child. Secondary strategies include using accommodations for the children with ASD and using mutual communication where the child communicates with the teacher almost as much as the teacher communicates with the child. The use of visualizations was also recommended as an effective tool for teaching comprehensive reading to children with ASD.
The author in Gostenik (2008) adopted a comprehensive literature review on the subject of teaching comprehensive reading to children with ASD to develop teaching strategies. The second part of the research was a qualitative study, based on observing the usage of the strategies developed on actual children with ASD. The strategy development process was based on sound research based on books and primary studies and can be adjudged as having been credible and reliable. However, few if any particulars about how the strategies were used and how the usage was observed have been given, thus limiting the reliability and credibility of the observation.
The use of Story Map as a means of teaching comprehension to children with ASD, more so high-functioning autism (HFA) has also been identified as an effective strategy (Stringfield, Luscre, & Gast, 2011). Story Maps can be considered as a type of reading visual aids but where the visuals and the story itself are intertwined. As children with autism have challenges connecting what is written in words with what it means in the real world, Story Map brings the world to the story thus eliminating the challenge. When children with ASD can read and see what they are reading about contemporaneously, their reading abilities are exponentially enhanced. Tools such as Story Maps can thus be used as a reading comprehension teaching strategy for children with ASD.
The research reported in Stringfield, Luscre, and Gast (2011) is based on an observational qualitative study undertaken in three children all of whom are indicated to have high-functioning autism (HFA). The children were taught reading comprehension by using Story Maps and the results of their learning process analyzed. It must, however, be noted that only three children were involved in the study, and these children had HFA, a controversial classification of ASD (McIntyre et al., 2017). Whereas the results of the study align themselves with available research, the credibility and reliability of the research study itself are doubtful.
Finally, the article by Whalon and Hart (2011) is an express indictment of the standard approach of dealing with children with ASD, based on how school management was altered as under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act. More importantly, the article provides strategies that teachers can use to ensure that children with ASD are able to learn reading comprehension, even when they have been placed in the general classroom environment. Teachers need to give special support to children with ASD since when placed in the normal classroom, they cannot be able to lean properly. The teacher should be able to anticipate areas where the children might need help and offer it, and also be keen to see when the children need special help as some are able to request for it.
The research reported in Whalon and Hart (2011) was based on a qualitative observational study of three children with ASD who were placed in the normal public school elementary classroom in America. The researchers carefully observed how the students responded to training on reading comprehension as it was undertaken together with their peers who do not have ASD and in a normal classroom. The observations made on each particular child were carefully recorded and analyzed. The study designed was effective in studying the phenomena that the researchers sought to investigate although the overall credibility was limited by the small sample used.
Discussion
The entire concept of improving reading comprehension for students with ASD is exponentially hampered by the exponential variance in the prevalent types of ASD. Some children with ASD are severely challenged cognitively that it is hard for them to learn, more so in a normal classroom and over an elongated period of time (Demetriou et al., 2018). However, most children with Savant Syndrome are also autistic and despite their social challenges, their learning capabilities will normally be greater than even their peers who do not suffer from ASD (Hughes et al., 2018). For example, in the average elementary school, the teacher might have two children with ASD who have been affected in opposite ways, one of who needs more material to learn and the other who does not want to learn at all. It is on this basis that the teacher needs to understand children with ASD personally, without generalizations to handle each case independently.
The concept of individualized education plans (IEPs) is also critical to improving reading comprehension to children with ASD. The challenges that face children with ASD in comprehensive reading manifest differently for different children (Demetriou et al., 2018). For example, one child may be unable to read at all or can only read simple words while another child may be able to read even the hardest words but cannot connect the meaning of the words to real life events (El Zein et al., 2014). Both children have a reading comprehension problem but need different forms of help. Having an IEP in place will enable the teacher to provide the right kind of help to the right child (Carretti et al., 2014). Treating all children in the same way, merely because they are autistic is counterproductive as it will exacerbate their reading problems instead of helping them improve.
An especially difficult challenge in the improvement of comprehensive reading for children with ASD comes about since under current laws they mainly find themselves having to learn alongside their peer who does not have ASD. Most teachers can effectively handle children with ASD and teach them reading comprehension but it becomes a challenge when they are handling them alongside the rest of the elementary class (Wright, 2017). Some form of training is necessary to enable teachers to handle the children with ASD without inordinately inconveniencing the rest of the class. Further, seeking to understand the children with ASD better will make assisting them easier and more effective. Finally, in some activities such as reciprocal teaching, retelling, and thinking-aloud, the teacher can incorporate all children so that they do not feel left out when the children with ASD are getting some extra support to learn reading comprehension (El Zein et al., 2014; Finnegan & Mazin, 2016).
Conclusion
Teaching reading comprehension is hard for all children, but exponentially harder for children with ASD but some mitigation strategies enable teachers to mitigate the hardship. A child is said to be proficient in comprehensive reading when the child can read an average passage, understand what it means, and also learn something out of it that can be added to the other knowledge in the child’s mind. As reflected from the research above, ASD varies exponentially from child to child with some children having actual learning disabilities while others only having social interaction issues. Modern education laws provide for the teaching of children with ASD so that they can attain the same level of proficiency with their peers. When it comes to reading comprehension, however, children with ASD have a number of challenges. They include difficulty in learning literacy and comprehension challenges such as appreciating referents, connecting antecedent events, and phonological decoding. Among the strategies available to enable children to overcome these challenges include taking time to learn about the child individually then develop an individualized education plan for each child. Patience and close support are also necessary for children with ASD. Among the more practical strategies include the use of visual aids, thinking-aloud, dramatization, and retelling. Among the teaching challenges involved include balancing between teaching children with ASD while handling the rest of the class, a challenge that would need sacrifice and training to overcome.
References
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