Comparing Children with ASD and Their Peers' Growth in Print Knowledge.
Autistic preschoolers keep up with letter learning but lag in print concepts—so target concepts, not letters.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tracked 3- to young learners with and without autism for one school year. They tested alphabet knowledge and print concepts every few months. Kids were in regular preschool classrooms with typical story-time routines.
What they found
Autistic children learned letter names at the same speed as peers. Both groups added about four new letters every three months. Yet the ASD group started lower on print concepts—like knowing you read left to right—and stayed lower all year.
How this fits with other research
Reichard et al. (2019) saw the same pattern in vocabulary: same growth rate, but a steady gap. The print gap is not a one-off.
Ferguson et al. (2020) helps explain why. Autistic kids spent less time looking at the book during shared reading. Less looking predicted smaller print-concept gains.
Plaisted et al. (2006) warned us early that reading skills in ASD scatter widely. Eussen et al. (2016) now pinpoints where the scatter starts—before kindergarten.
Why it matters
You can stop drilling extra letter songs. Letters are fine. Instead, weave print-concept language into every story you read. Point to words as you say them. Track with your finger. Ask, "Where do I start reading on this page?" Five extra seconds each page can close the gap before it widens.
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Join Free →During the next story, run your finger under each word as you read it and say the direction aloud—left to right, top to bottom.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with reading. An increased focus on emergent literacy skills-particularly print knowledge-might improve later reading outcomes. We analyzed longitudinal measures of print knowledge (i.e., alphabet knowledge and print-concept knowledge) for 35 preschoolers with ASD relative to a sample of 35 typically developing peers. Through multilevel growth curve analysis, we found that relative to their peers, children with ASD had comparable alphabet knowledge, lower print-concept knowledge, and acquired both skills at a similar rate. These findings suggest that children with ASD are unlikely to acquire print-concept knowledge commensurate to their peers without an increased emphasis on high-quality instruction that targets this skill.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2016 · doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2790-9