Part 2-High Functioning Autism and Reading Comprehension-Why is it so Hard?

-In my previous post I tried to help parents and teachers of Autistic readers understand WHY reading comprehension is so HARD. Just to recap, here are three important cognitive areas that are often not working for your Autistic child:

1. Theory of Mind-the ability to understand other's point of view or perspective.

2. Central Coherence-ability to bring details together into a whole concept or idea.

3. Executive Functioning-the process of organizing, planning, and monitoring progress when presented with a situation.

So, this is Part 2. Now that you have an idea of WHY reading comprehension is such a challenge, I want to share some ways parents and teachers can help. The information for these tips comes from this excellent article! 

STEP 1: Build up background knowledge of the subject in the reading. What does this even mean? Look at pictures together of things that relate the story. Talk about the pictures. Ask your child what they know. See if they have an understanding of what the picture is really showing.

STEP 2: Create mental images of what they are reading. Usually when you read about a delicious meal, you can "see" it in your head. This picture helps you understand what you've read. Your Autistic child struggles with this, so help him make those images. How? Looking at pictures in the book and talking about them. Use lots of description. "Think out loud" as you describe the picture. It's a lot like the Step 1, but this goes beyond naming to describing!

STEP 3: Make Connections. This is so easy to do, so effective, and doesn't require any materials! When your child is reading about the pigeon who wants to drive the bus, make a connection to the bus she rides each day to school. Point out the pigeon on the side of the road as you drive to visit your family. There are so many connections you can make (text to text, text to self, and text to world). Typical readers do this with some ease. Your Autistic reader needs help to make the connections.

STEP 4: Engage in Discussion. Again, no materials are needed! Just you and your time. Both are precious and so worth spending on your child. Just talk about the who, what, why, where, how, I wonder, and so on. 

STEP 5: Summarize their Understanding. Again, this just needs you and your time. Out-loud, help your child put their understanding together! They need us to SHOW them how we take what we know and come to a conclusion.

Still not sure? Here's a video clip of a few activities that touch on several of the steps mentioned above. The video is an ad for a teaching resource, however it's short and is a great demonstration of some of the steps that have been listed in this post. 

You are your child's first teacher.  And you'll probably always be their favorite. Never forget that!

Happy Reading!