Reading Comprehension and ASD
Part 2
Pat Rakovic
Use of Video to Support
Comprehension
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InSn2BLD
wfQ
Comprehension Strategies
Research shows that the following strategies
improve reading comprehension for students
with ASD ( research is not extensive!)
• Preteach basic factual concepts
• “ Primer paragraphs” to present facts
• Multiple thematic exposure
• Notice and relate content to title
• Visualizing through drawing and writing
• Explicit instruction of idioms
• Anaphoric cuing ( resolution of ambiguity
of pronouns)
Preparing to Read
• Wahlberg found that some people with ASD make
bizarre or incorrect connections
• The traditional KWL does not work as the K is too
broad for the student on the ASD spectrum
• Relating the title to the text
– Provide a clear title for a passage that does not have a title
– Prepare a primer passage that contains all of the main
ideas of the passage to be read
– After reading, discuss with the reader how the primer
passage, the title , and the passage itself all relate to one
another.
Pre-teach Basic Practical Concepts
• The information provided in advance can shift
foundational ideas from the unknown to the
known, improving familiarity. Familiar material is
easier to read and understand.
• For narratives, provide relevant facts that are
central to the plot, setting, characters, conflict,
emotional content, or historical context of a
story.
• For expository text provide and discuss key ideas
that you want the reader to learn from the
material before reading.
Use of Primer Passages
• A primer passage is a basic, facts only passage
that creates concrete understanding of the
main elements of a story. The primer passage
is a summary of the story to be read before
reading the story.
• It ‘primes’ the reader to understand the
material by including explanations that clarify
central concepts and the meaning of key
vocabulary words.
• The key is to keep the primer material succinct
and relevant.
Sample of a lesson with primer
passage
• The teacher prepares a short passage on
transparency, whiteboard or smartboard
• The teacher and students read it together.
• The students identify key words and the
teacher underlines them and as a group work
together to clarify the meaning of the words.
• Finally the group writes a one or two sentence
summary of the passage that includes the key
word.
Multiple Thematic Exposure
• Use related narratives to crease a solid fact
base that helps students make text to text
connections to improve understanding.
• Choose at least one selection to serve as a
primer passage, basic and easy for the reader
to understand, at the student's independent
reading level.
• Ask student to draw pictures or write about
each story after it is read.
Explicit Instruction of Idioms
• Select common idioms
• Relevant idioms ( those that are found in
the curriculum and selected readings
• Make a distinction between idioms that our
outdated and those that are currently used.
( bee’s knees/cool)
• Use materials that compare both the literal
and the figurative meanings of an idiom.
Materials with a picture are a plus
• When reading text model the opportunity
to guess the meaning of an idiom by
looking for context clues before looking for
the real answer. Teach this strategy to the
students.
Visualization through Writing and
Drawing
• Have students create their own visuals in
response to a story assists them in story recall.
• It can be used as an anchor to help the
student orally retell or write about the
passage.
• Be careful about the drawings: Not all people
on the spectrum have good fine motor skills
and drawing skills. For those that don’t they
might find the use of clip art to be helpful
Anaphoric Cuing
• Students on the spectrum are unlikely to pause
and clarify a word or phrase they do not
understand while reading. They read on without
realizing that they do not understand
• Difficulties with pronouns causes confusion.
• The reading skill called anaphoric cuing depends
on the reader stopping to clarify the meaning of
pronouns and understand to whom or what the
pronoun refers to .
• The anaphoric cuing strategy uses a visual cue to
prompt students to make the match.
Anaphoric Cuing
Anaphoric Cuing helps the student:
• Become more aware of self monitoring for
understanding
• Teach student to question the text
• Improve students ability to ask and answer “
who” questions.
• It may help with the understanding and use of
pronouns in spoken language.
Comprehension IDEA:
Roots, Suffixes and Affixes=
apply a formula to words
Teach how to break words into parts and
memorize roots, affixes and suffixes
Of all the strategies we used, Tom reported that
this was the breakthrough for him.
As always, it is wise to start by breaking down
the parts of words from the person’s area of
intense interest, whether it is Star Wars or
weather or trains
Text organization
Teach to preview text before diving into the
book.
Find the visual clues- boldfaced words,
definitions. chapter headings, pictures, the
type of text
Show the organization of text within chapters
(show the author’s order)
Cloze procedure
Does a cloze procedure really reveal how well
a person reads and understands authentic
text?
– Full pages?
– Chapters?
– Whole books?
The National Reading Panel
Recommendations
• Directly teach the skills used by good
readers to those that are not good readers
• Carefully select techniques based on the
age and abilities of the general education
students being taught: It might be better
for us to look at the pattern of the child’s
ability.
• Story Mapping and graphic organizers may
be promising.
Promising Practices:
How is Vocabulary Best Taught
to students with ASD?
Direct, explicit instruction of unfamiliar or key words BEFORE
reading (during or after are second choices).
Choose KEY words important to understanding that will be
encountered often.
Focus on words with multiple meanings.
Homographs: Words that look alike but don’t sound alike.
She had a tear in her eye when she got a tear in her dress.
Comprehension IDEA
The Synonym Strategy
• Grows vocabulary, self-monitoring, prereading skills, multiple meanings, parts of
speech
• A tool to instantly clarify word meaningswithout a “dictionary”
• User-friendly and fast
• Takes the dic-straction out of the equation
Visual Strategies
• Highlighting
– Removable highlight tape
– Buy used books already highlighted
While reading:
Teach Self-monitoring of Understanding
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•
•
•
Highlight
Draw
Fill in graphic organizers
Look for answers to questions
Comprehension IDEA: Media Strategies
• Show movies before reading books
• Read plays before reading books
www.imsdb.com
www.simplyscripts.com
• Summarize and sequence the events
• Analyze the plot, characters, themes &
vocabulary before looking at the same elements
in text.
• Turn on the closed captions on the TV “mapping
of speech onto print”
Some Commercial Products
• SRA corrective reading
• Lindamood Bell’s Visualizing and Verbalizing
– There is research on this methodology that is specific
to students on the spectrum
• Computer Assisted Instruction
– Greater interest and motivation
– More time spent reading
– Visuals with vocabulary word
• Read: Outloud
– http://www.donjohnston.com/products/read_outlou
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