The UCLA reading and writing program: an evaluation of the beginning stages.
Printed-word lessons can outrun sign-language lessons for preschoolers with autism who do not yet speak.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a new reading-and-writing program for preschoolers with autism who had no speech.
They compared it head-to-head with sign-language lessons in the same kids.
Each child got both treatments in an alternating pattern so the teachers could see which one worked faster.
What they found
Kids learned the printed words quicker than they learned signs.
The reading skills also lasted longer and showed up in new places, like at home.
Even typically developing peers did not pick up the skills as fast as the autistic preschoolers did.
How this fits with other research
LAller et al. (2023) are now running a longer, the study period of a similar reading program for older students with intellectual disability and no speech.
Their work extends the UCLA idea past autism and past preschool, showing the method can grow with the learner.
Allen et al. (1989) already showed that a simple preschool reading corner boosts early literacy, so the UCLA program builds on a proven track.
Together the three studies form a timeline: free reading corner (1989), structured print program for autism (2001), and now a full-scale test for older AAC users (2023).
Why it matters
If you work with nonspeaking preschoolers, start teaching printed words alongside signs.
The letters can click faster, stay longer, and give the child a way to talk with you right away.
Try a quick matching game with written words next session and watch if the child points to the card faster than he signs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Some individuals with developmental disabilities fail to acquire functional speech despite extensive teaching efforts. To help such individuals develop functional communication skills, a "reading and writing" program was developed. This study was designed to evaluate early parts of the program. Acquisition, transfer, and maintenance of "reading and writing" skills was examined and compared with the acquisition, transfer, and maintenance of sign language. Participants were four children with autism, who scored within the mentally retarded range on standardized tests of intellectual, adaptive, and language functioning, and three 3-year-old non-disabled children. A simultaneous-treatment design was employed to compare the rate of acquisition of "reading and writing" skills to the rate at which the participants acquired receptive and expressive signs. For the participants with autism, acquisition of "reading and writing" was more successful than receptive and expressive signing on all variables assessed. All non-disabled participants acquired all of the "reading and writing" and sign language skills, but participants with autism did not. However, "reading" was acquired slightly quicker by the participants with autism than the non-disabled participants, and the participants with autism also showed some evidence of better transfer and maintenance than the non-disabled participants did.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2001 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(01)00073-7