Literacy Issues for Non-Verbal Students with Autism - Part of My PowerPoint Presentation for Local Autism Support Group

[goodasitgets]

 Why Teach Reading?

•“Even in the absence of speaking and writing, children can learn to read and spell.” 

•“The ability to read can help to increase functional communication.”

•“Information a child may not process and understand auditorally may be understood visually.”

•“Reading will increase knowledge as well as teach a leisure skill.”

•“Reading can also increase social skills by providing a common topic to talk about.”

     ~from Strategies for Teaching Reading to Visual Learners ~ www.speechtx.com  


Literacy can be an important tool for bypassing auditory processing challenges in the home and classroom.

Obstacles to  Literacy

•Challenging Behavior (i.e. Family members may be reluctant to read to/with a child who has difficulty staying in place for the story)

•Attention Deficits

•Low to No Shared Attention and Engagement

•Autism Myths (such as low IQ)

•Auditory Processing Challenges

•Eye Convergence Insuffiency

 READING OPPORTUNITIES:

•Should be age appropriate

•Developmentally appropriate

•Meaningful themes

•Integrate literacy AND COMMUNICATION May also integrate social skills- one way to do this is the use of digital photos in a PowerPoint slide show in a social story format using social narratives.

 Create a Literacy Rich Environment:Increase the daily opportunities, both structured and natural for interaction with printed material and writing tools. Balanced Literacy combines equal parts GUIDED READING for comprehension, SELF SELECTED READING for fluency, WORKING WITH WORDS to improve spelling, decoding skills, and to build vocabulary, and WRITING.

Reading, Working with Words can assist a student in the ability to create original sentences in writing opportunities.  
Writing can become a mode of expressive communication for some non-speaking students with Autism. Where speech output is exceptionally difficult, such as in Apraxia with Autism, even when a student has messy handwriting this may still be an easier means of self expression that oral motor communication.  Some may prefer using a keyboard for writing opportunities.   

 

PHONICS AND/OR SOMETHING ELSE: Use the Child's Strengths and Learning Style...

Phonics alone may not get the job done for students with Autism struggling to read.  While phonics is sound and letter based, the visual and decoding skills of a student with Autism may be tapped to aide emergent literacy skills through the introduction of a sight word based program such as the Edmark Reading Program.  Sometimes these students can begin with words and follow up with mastering the sounds and names of individual letters, instead of the reverse. 

 Adapted Storybooks: Use Language Experience Stories as a Component, as well as Starting with Words Instead of Letters and Sounds.
Increase Visual and Tactile Aspect of Reading

Using graphics such as PECS or even digital photos, stories can be adapted so that for each word the child has a corresponding visual to help provide comprehension. 

Words that have meaning and motivation to the student are utilized

Target words are used for games and daily journals

Both adapted and conventional books are made available to students for self selected reading

Original stories can be written that relate directly to the child or existing stories may be adapted with graphics matched to each word and attached to the bottom of each page in sentence strip format.  The child is encouraged to point to each word as they read aloud or vocalize.  This should not be hand over hand as it is much too difficult to fade that prompt but you may assist by shaping and modeling the pointing or touching the child's elbow to move their hand forward to the words and graphics. 
Laminated pictures with text (may use clear contact paper) can also be made with velcro on the back that may be placed in the book in appropriate places as the book is read. 

I am currently working on an adapted story book of If You Take A Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff and for a story in my son's McGraw-Hill Reader Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant. My son already reads, but we are trying the adapted storybook concept to help improve his reading comprehension which currently is about a year below grade level. I hope to take some digital photos to of these adapted stories when they are finished to add to this Journal post. 

•http://www.joanncafiero.com/

•Adapted Books (over 502 downloadable adapted books using BoardMaker) http://wwwbaltimorecityschools.org/boardmaker/adapted_library.asp

•Picture Assisted Reading and Writing http://www.slatersoftware.com

•The Basic Reading Comprehension Kit for Hyperlexia and Autism also uses storyboard at the bottom of each page like adapted storybooks, along with a sight word approach. http://Linguisystems.com

•Speaking of  Speech is a great resource for graphics to use in creating adapted storybooks, as well as other readymade lessons and games in the Material Exchange section. http://www.speakingofspeech.com

 

•www.awesomeclipartforkids.com 

•www.barrysclipart.com 

•www.amazon.com 

•http://school.discovery.com/clipart 

•http://barnesandnoble.com/ 

•http://pics.tech4learning.com 

•http://www.google.com  (click on images)

 

•http://dgl.microsoft.com

•http://www.ese.ocps.net/  (OCPS Assistive Technology link)

http://www.mayer-johnson.com (downloads)

•http://card.ufl.edu/visual/start.html  (practical tips)

•http://www.do2learm.com  (activities)

•http://aacintervention.com  (tips and links)

•http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/boardmaker/adapted_library.asp (adapted books)

[SantaMom]

Oct. 12, 2007 at 9:45 PM

EXCELLENT and chock full of great info!!