Current profiles and early predictors of reading skills in school-age children with autism spectrum disorders: A longitudinal, retrospective population study.

Åsberg Johnels et al. (2019) looked back at school records for children with autism. They wanted to see how early language skills line up with reading skills at age eight.

The team grouped the kids into three reading profiles: good readers, poor readers, and hyperlexic readers who decode well but understand little. They then checked which preschool language scores predicted each group.

Kids who had weak oral language at age three were most likely to land in the poor-reader or hyperlexic-poor-comprehension groups by age eight.

Strong early talkers, in contrast, usually became typical readers later.

Bradford et al. (2018) saw the same pattern one year earlier: preschool vocabulary, name writing, and rapid naming flagged first-grade reading risk.

Sorenson Duncan et al. (2021) pooled 26 studies and confirmed that both word reading and oral language matter equally for comprehension in autism—so checking both areas is key.

Goodwin et al. (2017) seems to disagree. They found early language delay did not predict later adaptive living skills once IQ was matched. The difference is outcome: Anthony looked at daily living, Jakob at reading. Reading stays tightly tied to early language even when IQ is controlled.

Patton et al. (2020) built on Jakob’s clue by testing a 20-week school language program. Kids who received extra oral-language lessons gained vocabulary, narrative, and listening skills—showing the pipeline from early weakness to later help can work.

You can spot reading risk before kindergarten. If a child with autism speaks in short phrases or has limited vocabulary at three, plan extra language and story-talk now. Track both decoding and comprehension at age eight; weak talkers may decode fine yet miss the plot. Pair these checks with the oral-language lessons R et al. proved work, and you can shift that trajectory.