http://readerswithautism.com/2009/12/faqs-about-anaphoric-cuing-and-reading-comprehension/
Q: Is it “anaphoric cuing” or “anaphoric cueing”?
A: Yes.
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Q: What are anaphora?
A: Anaphora are words, often pronouns, which refer back to reference words previously used in the text. For example: “Dan opened his book, put his head down on it, and fell asleep.” In this case, “his” and “it” are the anaphora and “Dan” and “book” are the reference words.
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Q: What, briefly, is anaphoric cuing?
A: Anaphoric cuing involves teaching the child to identify the anaphora and to pause to relate them to their reference words while reading. In this way, the student begins to connect the parts of the text to one another. The active engagement required to relate words to one another supports the child’s connection to the text and reduces his or her habit of passive decoding.
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Q: Who first identified anaphoric cuing as an effective intervention for teaching reading comprehension to children on the autism spectrum?
A: Researchers Irene O’Connor and Perry Klein, both of the University of Western Ontario (Canada),worked with 20 adolescent students with hyperlexia to explore the success of cloze questions, pre-reading questions, and anaphoric cuing. They found anaphoric cuing to be the most effective teaching strategy for improving reading comprehension with these students.
[O’Connor, I.M. & Klein, P.D. (2004). Exploration of strategies for facilitating the reading comprehension of high-functioning students with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2): 115 -127]
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Q: What is meant by hyperlexia?
A: Hyperlexia is a reading disorder characterized by a precocious ability to decode words, usually two or more levels above the child’s age or grade, combined with significantly impaired comprehension of the same words. Many children on the autism spectrum have this difficulty, even though they may not be diagnosed with hyperlexia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia)
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Q: Has O’Connor and Klein’s study been “proven” in the classroom?
A: This blog’s primary author, Sara Finegan, has had success with the technique (http://readerswithautism.com/2009/09/autism-and-hyperlexia-part-1-anaphoric-cuing/ and http://readerswithautism.com/2009/09/autism-and-hyperlexia-part-2-helping-bobby-read/ ) and would like to hear from other teachers or parents about their experience with anaphoric cuing or any other teaching strategy that has worked to improve reading comprehension by students on the autism spectrum.
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Q: How did Sara learn to do this?
A: As her first posts show, Sara and her student, Bobby, worked it out for themselves. The process is not complicated. Paraeducators (paraprofessionals, classroom aides) can help to implement it. (http://readerswithautism.com/2009/12/anaphoric-cuing-asking-clarifying-questions/ and http://paraeducatorcentral.com/2011/02/role-of-the-classroom-aide-to-help-the-child-toward-independence/)
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Q: Does the technique work with students trying to improve reading comprehension in another language besides English?
A: We don’t know for sure, but would assume that in any language that uses pronouns or other anaphora regularly in text, large numbers of children on the autism spectrum have difficulty with comprehension. This technique could be tried to see if it helps and PLEASE let us know what your results are.
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Q: I’m a teacher (or parent) willing to try anaphoric cuing but I have questions. Can I contact you?
A: Certainly. We want you to Post a Comment to any one of our articles, including this one (see below), or you may Contact Us ( http://readerswithautism.com/contact-us/ ) by email. We will respond to any communication from an educator or a parent trying to help a struggling reader.
Our Goal: Providing help for struggling readers on the autism spectrum.
Related posts:
- Anaphoric cuing: Asking clarifying questions
- Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading
- Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?
- Anaphoric cuing: We are Number 1!
- Role of the classroom aide: To help the child toward independence
4 Comments
I have been offered a chance to work with an autistic student who has trouble with comprehension. The mom has mention anaphoric cuing. I have taught learning disabled students for 30 years. Would me attempting to teach her the cue words be of help or would I cause more confusion?
Patti:
When you say that the mother has mentioned anaphoric cuing, what do you mean? Has she asked you about it, or mentioned that she has tried it with her child, or something else? Have you ever used this strategy to help students with comprehension?
I believe that anaphoric cuing is a highly-effective intervention. It takes time to get a routine established, and it should be done fairly consistently. If you have used it before, then by all means, try it with this new student. If not, then you need to learn as much as you can about it, select some good texts at the student’s level, and plan your sessions.
Good luck!
Sara
Hello, I am a special education teacher and a grad student. I work with a student with autism and would like to give anaphoric cuing a try. The video links don’t seem to be working, is there any other way I could watch them?
Thanks!
Kelly,
I don’t know why the links stopped working, but we think they are all fixed now. None of them are videos, however. They are links to related articles. Sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Sara