Exploring Engagement in Shared Reading Activities Between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Caregivers.
Use fiction books and lively parent questions to pull kids with autism into shared reading moments.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fleury et al. (2018) watched kids with autism and typically developing kids share books with a parent.
They coded how engaged each child looked and how the parent read.
Fiction and non-fiction books were used to see if book type mattered.
What they found
Children with autism showed less quiet looking and listening than typical peers.
They also had more moments of total disengagement.
Fiction books and lively, interactive reading boosted joint attention for both groups.
How this fits with other research
Weiss et al. (2021) also saw lower engagement in toddlers with autism during play.
The two studies seem to clash because one used play and the other used books, but both show the same core problem: kids with autism drift away faster.
Watkins et al. (2021) later showed that structured, fun play can raise sibling engagement, proving that adult style and activity choice really do matter.
Koegel et al. (2014) adds that warm, cohesive reading moments link to better social skills later, backing the idea that parent style is a lever you can pull.
Why it matters
You can’t force a child to attend, but you can pick fiction books and coach parents to read with excitement.
Next time you model shared reading, skip the fact books and show parents how to ask lively questions and act out sounds.
Small changes in book choice and parent style can turn quiet reading time into shared engagement practice.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Reading aloud to children is a valued practice to promote emergent literacy and language skills that form the foundation for future reading success. We conducted a descriptive study of shared book reading practices between caregivers and their children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 17) and caregivers and their typically developing children (n = 20) to identify factors that can promote or inhibit children's engagement in reading. Caregivers and their children read nine books (familiar, non-fiction, fiction). Children with ASD demonstrated lower levels of passive engagement (looking at the book) and higher levels of non-engaged behavior compared to typically developing children. Caregiver reading quality and book type contributed to joint engagement during reading. Implications of these findings for intervention development are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3632-8