Reading Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Comparing Observations of Instruction to Student Reading Profiles
Upper-elementary students with ASD are getting almost no explicit word-recognition teaching even when their standardized scores show it’s what they need most.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched reading lessons in upper-elementary autism classrooms. They wrote down how many minutes teachers spent on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. Then they compared those minutes to each child’s reading test scores.
They wanted to see if the teaching matched the kids’ actual needs.
What they found
Less than five percent of class time went to word recognition. Yet almost half the students scored below average on word-reading tests. Teachers mostly talked about story meaning, even when kids could not sound out the words.
The mismatch was large and consistent across rooms.
How this fits with other research
May (2011) already showed that massed sight-word drills with prompts and rewards work for students with autism. Solis et al. now show those drills are barely used, so the old positive findings sit on the shelf.
Ricketts et al. (2013) proved word recognition drives comprehension for teens with ASD. The new study shows schools still skip that step, letting the gap grow.
Giallo et al. (2014) found vocabulary is also key. Together the papers say: teach words first, then vocabulary, then deeper meaning. Right now schools jump to the last step.
Why it matters
You can fix the mismatch tomorrow. Start each reading block with five minutes of sight-word fluency drills. Pick words from the child’s error list on the last assessment. Use model-lead-test and token praise, then move to comprehension. This one tweak aligns teaching with twenty years of evidence.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Abstract Despite a marked increase in the volume of research investigating issues about reading interventions for students with ASD (e.g., Bailey and Arciuli, Rev J Autism Dev Disord 7(2):127–150, 2020; Chiang and Lin, Focus Autism Other Dev Disab 22(4):259–267, 2007), very few studies have examined the current reading practices experienced by children with ASD in the schools. This mixed-method study reports on the observed reading instruction and reading performance of students (N = 39) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in grades 4–8 (ages 9–14 years.) across two separate geographic regions of the USA. Data collection included systematic observations of tier 1 and tier 2/3 reading instruction. Students were also assessed with standardized measures of word recognition, language, and reading comprehension. The purpose of this investigation was to contribute to the limited corpus of observation research on reading instruction for students with ASD within the context of describing student performance on battery of standardized measures. A total of 168 lesson sessions totaling 7497 min of observed class time were completed and the battery of measures were administered to students. Results of the observations indicated that 44–48% of instructional time across different tiers of instruction were dedicated to comprehension monitoring consisting of answering teacher directed questions. Minimal amounts of time were dedicated to word recognition instruction. According to findings from the assessment battery, approximately 46% of students had below average scores on word recognition and reading comprehension measures. Study findings suggest a mismatch between student needs and the manner in which they were addressed.
Journal of Behavioral Education, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s10864-023-09532-6