Tag Archives: Asperger

Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading

By Sara Finegan If you ask a child with autism to read a story to you, chances are that she or he will read with an almost robotic voice, word for word, with no expression.  Even an accomplished decoder will focus on getting the words right rather than the phrasing.  Good readers actually “hear” the story in [...]

Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

By Sara Finegan Bobby approached my kidney-shaped conference table hesitantly, walking on tiptoe around the nearby rocking chair.  He was carrying a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  I greeted him; he did not meet my eyes.  This was the first day of the second week of school, and we had fashioned name [...]

Autism and hyperlexia, part 2: Helping Bobby read

By Sara Finegan When I met him, Bobby was a fourth grader with autism, struggling to make meaning of the words he so easily read aloud (decoded).  He had hyperlexia, a common condition with children on the autism spectrum, in which they seem to read well but comprehend little.  Research suggested to me that something [...]

Anaphoric cuing: We are Number 1!

Search the term anaphoric cuing today on Yahoo! and you’ll get 29,700 results.  And the winner is…www.readerswithautism.com! On Google, and on bing, we come in at number three.  Not bad, we think, for a blog that began in August 2009.  Granted, not many teachers and parents yet know the term anaphoric cuing.  But we hope [...]

Role of the classroom aide: To help the child toward independence

By Richard Finegan This blog is a collaborative effort between my wife Sara and me.  She does most of the writing.  I do all of the editing, formatting, illustrating (mostly clip art), layout, etc.  Since neither of us had ever blogged or had a website before, it has been a new and rewarding experience. I [...]

Paraprofessional/aide as facilitator in partner/group work

…you must give the child with autism a chance to learn cooperation skills. You don’t help the child who has social interation difficulties by imposing a resolution on every partner or group dispute in which you find them.