Reading comprehension intervention for high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

The prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorders appears to be on the increase and educators are becoming more aware of their educational and social needs. In particular, many students with high-functioning autism have a deficit in reading comprehension. As a consequence, there is now a greater determination by educators to design the most appropriate reading interventions to address their specific learning impairments. This article outlines a balanced instructional framework for reading comprehension intervention that includes a three-levelled structure incorporating language decoding, language comprehension and metacognitive processes. Research suggests that reading comprehension intervention should focus on reading for meaning by incorporating visual and verbal cognitive strategies to enhance the development of local and global inferencing skills. The framework highlights the need to develop language, social and self-regulation abilities in association with dialogic interaction.