Essential Autism Literacy Skills – Autism Parenting Magazine

A Professor of Occupational Therapy shares some key ideas for supporting your autistic child with literacy and comprehension.

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often demonstrate delays in early language and literacy skills. These language delays can impact literacy engagement and reading skills, which can negatively affect academic achievement and independence with community tasks well into adulthood.

Creating an environment that fosters literacy engagement and reading development can improve the literacy skills of an autistic child, impacting their success in school and their community for years to come.

Literacy, autism, and community independence

The first step in understanding literacy is providing a concrete definition of the skill. Literacy is defined as “the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential”. Therefore, literacy involves not only reading for academic tasks, but also using printed and written information to function in one’s community.

For a child, literacy is a large part of their school day, where reading is needed to engage in all academic tasks. In adulthood, literacy is also required to be successful in the community. This includes skills such as recognizing street signs during a walk to ensure safety, identifying public transportation vehicles for local travel, maintaining medication routines with appropriate supervision, and engaging in work roles with tasks that require literacy, such as clocking into work or following written directions. Being able to engage in these skills allows an autistic individual to travel, work, and engage in their community.

Typical literacy needs with autism

Addressing literacy with autistic individuals begins with understanding what literacy issues are most often seen with this population, and how to best address the areas that need development. Autistic children often have issues with language comprehension, expressive communication, and awareness of print concepts. Lack of development of these key literacy areas negatively impacts literacy outcomes later in life, affecting academic progress and community involvement.

Literacy skills development

To develop the specific areas most affected by autistic individuals, the following strategies can be implemented at home and in the school setting.

Language comprehension and expressive communication

Shared reading

Shared reading is the practice of adults reading aloud to children while using specific types of engagement meant to develop literacy skills. Boyle et al. (2019) found that children with autism respond well to shared reading with adults. Positive effects were found for listening comprehension and expression communication.

The following strategies can be used when reading with an autistic child to develop comprehension and expressive communication:

Digital devices. Boyle et al. (2021) found that e-books with dynamic text and speech output features (when completed using a shared reading model) were effective in developing single-word reading skills. When using a digital device, engagement with the child assists with establishing comprehension and expressive skills. This can include using some of the same shared reading techniques previously mentioned when listening to an e-book with speech output.

Sensory kits. While reading mainly involves the visual and auditory sensory systems, including other senses, it can enhance the understanding of what is seen and heard during reading tasks. A multisensory approach to reading, including the tactile sensory system, can positively impact comprehension.

Including other sensory systems can be accomplished using a reading sensory kit, where a bag of items that are part of a story can be included in a reading activity. As the story is read, the child can hold and manipulate an item that is being discussed in the book. This provides the child with an opportunity to use multiple senses to understand the story.

Therefore, for an autistic child who has difficulty with language processing, the use of a concrete item that can be felt and manipulated will allow for different levels of comprehension. This multisensory approach also increases the opportunity for expression during the story.

A multisensory approach to reading, including kinesthetics and the tactile sensory system, can positively impact comprehension . Kits can also be made by using available items based on characters in a story.

Print concepts: Use motor skills to develop understanding of print concepts. Print concepts can be learned with engaging gross motor games. This can include games such as alphabet hopscotch, reaching for play items (for example, balloons or clothespins) with letters or words on that play item, and scavenger hunts for letters, words, and sounds. If there is limited space to engage in gross motor tasks, print concepts can also be developed using tabletop activities, such as writing letters and words in different sensory textures that a child can tolerate (shaving cream, sand, or chalkboard), and using items such as Play-Doh or chenille pipe cleaners.

Reading activities: Engage in reading activities. While worksheets can help develop a general understanding of print concepts, there is a decreased opportunity to determine if a literacy skill has been learned. Engagement using the strategies provided above for shared reading is important to determine your child’s understanding and development of a print concept.

This can include increasing awareness of letters of the alphabet, the sound a letter makes, and spelling words. Reading to a child daily for 15 minutes has a positive impact on brain and reading development and can work to build vocabulary, improve reading, and foster a love of books. .

Practice writing first and last names: found that an important step of understanding print concepts is being able to write one’s first and last name. Therefore, using opportunities to have a child write, copy, or spell their first and last name will lay the foundation for an understanding of letter concepts.

Attention span

For success with literacy engagement, comprehension, and print awareness, it is essential to take into account the attention span of your child. Listed below are strategies to increase a child’s attention span to allow for 15 minutes (or more!) of reading:

• Create a reading corner with pillows and soft lighting, separate from the general space, to create an area that is calming for your child to read. If your child can tolerate oils, try aromatherapy in the area with essential oils such as lavender to calm the sensory system.
• Use a timer to allow your child to understand when the task of reading will be finished. Have the child set the timer to 15 minutes (or more if more time can be tolerated) and read until the timer runs out. Try not to use timers that tick because they may be distracting. Also, choose a sound that is soothing when the timer goes off.
• Schedule reading as part of a morning or evening routine. It may help to ensure the child is aware and understands that reading is part of their bedtime routine, or perhaps the first activity in their morning routine

Summing-up

Literacy skills are an important component of academic and community success for all children, including those with autism. While there are areas of concern with literacy development in autistic children, there are many opportunities to address literacy development.