Author Archives: Sara (readers1)

Humor and the child with autism

By Richard Finegan Anyone who spends much time living or working with children with autism will have experienced their quirky senses of humor.  Others may be surprised to discover that a child with a flat affect and monotonous speaking voice can be intentionally funny.  And appreciate humor for humor’s sake. An example: Summer school, an [...]

Textual clues to emotion will help with inflection

To get a student with autism to read with inflection, especially the younger ones, perhaps we need to TELL them what the emotion of the speaker is.

Inference Cuing: What is the most likely reason for that?

What can we infer is the reason for this character’s behavior? Readers with autism may need to be prompted to focus their thinking on what is most common and most likely under the circumstances of the story.

* What are the most common reasons why someone would do that?

* What is the most likely reason this character is doing that, considering what just happened to her?

Asperger Syndrome rolled into new Autism Spectrum Disorder

For those like me curious about the actual proposed wording of the new section of the DSM-V (and I’ll admit I’m a wonk and want to see these things verbatim, not just interpreted for me by someone who thinks I can’t read well enough to understand it), here it is:

What were they thinking? Teach vocabulary!

Those of us attempting to help struggling readers on the spectrum to comprehend what they read in narrative, in text, are limited by the breadth of the child’s working vocabulary. Anything we can do to expand that working vocabulary pushes us closer to a grade-appropriate level of reading comprehension.

Hope for Haiti Telethon, Jan. 22; Need, today

It has nothing directly to do with reading or autism but everything to do with being a caring human being. At 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, January 22, a voluntary collection of cable networks will simulcast the Hope for Haiti telethon to raise money for earthquake relief. Actor George Clooney, Musician/singer Wyclef Jean (himself [...]