Just when I thought I knew what I was doing after years as a paraprofessional working one-on-one with children with autism, life teaches me a hard lesson:  it is a different world in kindergarten!

I mean, kindergartners are barely socialized!  And I’m not talking about the ones with autism.  They have to be taught how to walk in line, how to use crayons, how to sit in one spot.

I work with an included five-year-old who can already read at about a first grade level but rarely talks spontaneously.  He is stimulated to the point of fascination by moving vehicles and our classroom has a full view of the street.  He will stand up, turn his back on the teacher, peer out the windows (or walk to the door when the windows are blocked) and bounce stiffly in place while watching the cars.

For more than I week, I redirected him (over and over) back to his place at the checkered rug, where most instruction takes place.  Finally, I had an idea.

As I said, he reads, or at least decodes, well.  Things like “Animals need plants to grow” and “Think About It” which were titles in a science book we were looking at together.  He may have hyperlexia, but it is difficult at this point to assess how much he comprehends of what he reads.

I also have had the experience with more than one older child with autism that they tend to (dare I say) religiously follow rules, and are often upset by other students who disobey them.

So I decided to write some rules for Jacob (not his real name).

Jacob’s Rule 1:  In your square or in your chair.  Other kids were sent to their desks when they wouldn’t behave at the rug, so I did the same with Jacob.  He accepted this readily.

Jacob’s Rule 2:  Eyes on the teacher.  He would rarely watch the teacher or look at what she was demonstrating to the class.  I showed him the rule while turning him toward the teacher.

Jacob’s Rule 3:  Stay in line.  He doesn’t stray far from the line but rarely follows behind the person in front of him.

Jacob’s Rule 4:  Hands to yourself.  He has a friend he adores, a girl smaller than he is, who he loves to touch and hug.  Which is quite cute but…not conducive to what is considered appropriate classroom behavior.

Jacob’s Rule 5:  No watching the cars.  This one was a gamble.  Jacob’s car watching is less a choice and more a compulsion.  But I was hopeful that, once he accepted that there were rules in the classroom, we could stop the “stimming” by reminding him of the rule.  So far, I’ve had some success with this.

I printed each rule on a different colored square of paper, laminated them, and put them on a ring.  I carry the ring around most of the time and when I enforce a rule, I hold it in front of Jacob until he looks at it, then point to the words as I read them.  He will now read along with me and will almost always comply with no additional prompting. 

Granted, it is often as little as 30 seconds before he forgets and repeats the activity, but I am thrilled that a child with autism that young is responding to written rules.

Related posts:

1. First…Then: A kindergartner with autism, Part II
2. Reader with autism and figurative language, part 1
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

I have spent more time thinking about fiction than non-fiction when it comes to supporting readers with autism, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to make it a priority as the kids get older.

Most kids on the autism spectrum (but again, not all) tend to prefer non-fiction books and don’t exhibit as much difficulty making meaning of what the text tells them.   This is because the information in expository text is usually very literal and concrete, and doesn’t require any deep probing for concepts that are, by their very nature, alien to the kids.   

What we learn about rainforest animals in a science text  is straight-forward.  Information about where and how they live, what they eat, and who preys on them can be provided in pictures, diagrams, and simple, clear sentences.   Readers with autism can often read, assimilate, and categorize expository information very quickly and without support.

What we learn about friendship in The Secret Garden, on the other hand, isn’t something we can visualize, takes more than one sentence to describe, and  needs all kinds of words and examples, and the ability to carry ideas forward and stretch them back in the story.  This is hard for many kids in general education!

We must not neglect non-fiction reading with our readers with autism, however.  By the fourth grade, kids are going to need to be able to understand the concept of “main idea and supporting detail;” to identify them, to use them in organizing facts and concepts, and to write them.  If we ignore these essential skills, our readers with autism are going to be limited in what they can do with information they read about.

I re-discovered this foundational piece of expository text comprehension this year when I began to teach the BING, BANG, BONGO method of writing five-paragraph essays to a group of general and special ed students in the fifth grade.  Although at first it appeared that everyone was doing quite well using a planning template to formulate their body paragraphs, I realized after a couple of sessions that more than half the kids were not able to create a main idea sentence (BING sentence, BANG sentence, BONGO sentence) based on the three details they’d chosen for a topic.  As I listened and watched a little longer, I concluded that they weren’t even aware of the fact that all paragraphs have a main idea and supporting details and don’t identify them as they read, much less write.  We are now going back, in guided reading groups, into the social studies textbook to explore and practice.

Here’s the deal:  If you don’t (a) understand that every paragraph has a main idea and supporting details related to that main idea; and (b) know what the difference is between main idea and supporting details, and (c) know how to identify the idea and details, you cannot:

• Learn how to determine the important facts in what you are reading,
• Learn how to take accurate notes in class, or
• Write an essay

By the time a kid hits the fifth grade, we are requiring them to write multiple-paragraph essays about topics related to social studies or science units.  Our readers with autism don’t get an automatic  pass on that requirement; even if teachers don’t demand a lengthy written report, they do want some display of mastery and understanding, and more often than not, the display has to involve use of main idea/supporting detail concepts.

More to come…

Related posts:

1. Non-fiction matters, Part II
2. Reader with autism and figurative language, part 1
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

Read Alouds are a vital component of the literacy curriculum, yet many autistic children do not respond well to them.  With autism on the rise, advice on this issue from the Readers with Autism blog couldn’t be more timely:

http://readerswithautism.com/2009/08/the-problem-of-the-read-aloud/

You can subscribe to us here or on Facebook.  Look for a series of new posts on reading and autism coming in October.  As always, if you have specific questions, please post them.

You might also find interesting our sister blog about rigor in the classroom (particularly special education), The Demanding Classroom.com.

Related posts:

1. The problem of the read-aloud
2. Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading

Just a couple of observations about two high school students I have worked with recently:

One writes in short, concrete sentences, almost always in the present tense, even when he’s journaling about what he did yesterday.  Is verb tense, particularly when writing, a common problem for kids on the spectrum?

Both of these students (and one is much nearer the Asperger’s end of the spectrum than the other) are capable of reading aloud with inflection if they KNOW what the emotion of the speaker is supposed to be. If there are textual clues that the speaker is angry or happy, they know how that sounds. I find this interesting since one of my students speaks in a monotone generally and reads routinely in a very soft tone.

Yet if the text says something like:

John was angry. “Give me my backpack!” he demanded–both will add appropriate, louder, inflection when reading John’s words.

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.  They usually won’t infer this from the situation, even though most of us will.  But they know how an angry person sounds if they know he’s angry.  Or a happy person.  Or a sad person.

The more they recognize the different tones of voice, the easier it will be to infer emotions in daily communication.  Perhaps.

Related posts:

1. Inference Cuing: What is the most likely reason for that?
2. Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

It has frequently been observed that children on the autism spectrum  tend to be concrete and literal thinkers who have difficulty with abstract concepts like inferring a character’s unstated motive.  When reading fiction, the concrete thinkers will focus narrowly on the minute physical details and often miss the “big picture.”

Fernando’s red jacket flapped in the wind as he raced on his new bicycle down Maple Street.  Ignoring the stop sign at the end of the block, Fernando ran straight into the side of a passing city bus.  When he woke up he heard a siren and realized he was in the back of an ambulance.

The child with autism should have no difficulty telling you that Fernando’s jacket was red, and his bike was new.  He probably would be able to report that Fernando ran into a bus.

Yet some may not recognize that the person in the ambulance is Fernando, because Fernando’s name is not stated in the last sentence, only the pronoun “he” is used (an example of anaphora).  Children with autism frequently will not connect one sentence to the next, even within paragraphs.

While it may seem to us both obvious and critically important for the reader to recognize that Fernando is injured, the child with autism may make no such connections without coaching.  They do not always think about the ramifications of coats flapping in the wind, bicycles speeding, and stop signs ignored.  The visual image of a child’s body striking the side of a moving bus does not automatically come to them, or necessarily suggest to them an ambulance ride to the hospital, or worse.

Anaphoric cuing (about which there are several articles on this blog) teaches the child to stop when he gets to anaphora and ask himself who or what, or where or when or why questions to focus his attention on the meaning of what he is reading by identifying the referent words.  The reader needs to think about who is waking up in an ambulance, and why.  Was Fernando napping or was he knocked unconscious?

Inferring motive

A character’s motives may be similarly difficult for the child with autism to recognize, even when they seem clear to most readers.

Bob’ s favorite green Boston Celtics hat was missing from his locker!  He looked up and down the hallway and spotted George wearing a green hat!  Bob ran down the hall, shoved George against the wall, and grabbed the hat off his head.  As Bob was walking away, he noticed that the green hat he was holding said Dallas Mavericks.

The child with autism might know that Celtic hats are green, might know Bob’s was missing, might know the hat George was wearing was green, and yet may be stumped by the question:  Why did Bob shove George and take his hat? Since the text does not explicitly say that Bob suspected George of taking his hat, the reader with autism might not make this seemingly obvious inference.

How to infer state of mind, emotion, or motive from a character’s actions is something that must be taught patiently to young readers with autism.  Often the teacher or aide must have to learn how to recognize themselves when they are inferring so they can guide the student to a similar inference.

What is most likely?

When a character is described as frowning and speaking loudly, we may infer “anger” without even being aware we made an inference.

Julia waited on the front porch of Elizabeth’s house for 15 minutes.  When Elizabeth finally came outside, Julia frowned and asked loudly, “Can we go now?”

The concrete thinker, if asked, might surprise us with the number of other possible (if implausible) explanations for speaking loudly while frowning.  They can always come up with fanciful scenarios (“maybe a caterpillar crawled in her ear“) which have no connection whatsoever to the text.  They 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?

Keeping track of details is a strength

When instructing a whole classroom of students, most of which do not have autism, on a long piece of fiction one may discover an advantage that many readers with autism have: they can often keep track of a surprising number of minor characters and minute details, even if they have difficulty connecting them.

A high school student with autism, having studied an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet for several weeks in class, was watching the Zefferelli film and laughed to himself when Romeo’s servant, Balthazar, passes a monk on a donkey while on his way to Mantua to tell Romeo of Juliet’s apparent death. “Friar John” the student said.  Friar John was not named in the version of the play studied.  The name was mentioned once in class weeks before.

I have also observed (to my surprise) that some children with autism are as capable as other kids of learning the meaning of idioms such as “nose to the grindstone” or “sick as a dog” or “hold your horses.”  In fact, they may even recognize the humor in certain idioms, once they learn the meaning, that others more familiar with the terms may overlook.  Drawing an absurd picture to illustrate a witty idiom may be great fun for these children.

Related posts:

1. FAQs about anaphoric cuing and reading comprehension
2. Anaphoric cuing: Asking clarifying questions
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

The new proposed DSM-V, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual that is the bible for mental health professionals, would eliminate Asperger’s syndrome (first added to DSM-IV in 1994) as a diagnosis separate from autism.  Those now diagnosed with Asperger’s will presumably fall into the milder end of a broadened “Autism Spectrum Disorder.”  Numerous articles about the proposed change are available, including this one from National Public Radio.

The new name for the category, autism spectrum disorder, includes autistic disorder (autism), Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. 

For those like me curious about the actual wording of the new proposed 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:  [Bold face and words in brackets I have added]

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3:

 1.  Clinically significant, persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, as manifest by all of the following: 

a.  Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction:

b.  Lack of social reciprocity; [and]

c.  Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level  [and]

2.  Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least TWO of the following: 

a.  Stereotyped motor or verbal behaviors, or unusual sensory behaviors 

b.  Excessive adherence to routines and ritualized patterns of behavior

c.  Restricted, fixated interests [and]

3.  Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94

Related posts:

1. Reader with autism and figurative language, part 1
2. When a reader with autism needs to respond to literature…
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

There was a time in recent memory when teachers were actively discouraged from teaching vocabulary disconnected from academic subject areas.  Word walls were always subject specific.  Wordlists were always dictated by the text being studied. 

You never taught the words “subtle” or “reckless” or “arrogance” until the particular text the child was reading required it.  As a consequence, word groups, antonyms and synonyms, were learned haphazardly and shallowly, if at all.

The rationale for this was mysterious.  Subject and text specific vocabulary always was and always will be taught as needed.  What children needed was a deeper, richer, broader vocabulary and teachers were discouraged from providing it directly.

Children with autism often (and with hyperlexia, always) recognize  and fluently read words most of their peers stumble over.  But this does not translate into understanding those words.

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.

Both expressive and receptive language difficulties are made worse when the child has a limited bank of words with which they are familiar.  To help address this very issue, I use what I call “sorting cards” which I finds can be employed to integrate not only subject-area vocabulary but also word lists (adjectives, adverbs, active verbs) used for descriptive writing.

Recently, I’ve begun using my “smart board”…yes, in these difficult times, when I may be taking a pay cut, I still have cutting-edge touch-screen technology in my classroom, thanks to a bond issue.  But where was I? 

Oh yes…I use my Promethean smart board to let kids move words around on the board, grouping them into synonyms and antonyms.  In small groups they talk about them, match them, rearrange them, and use them while having fun at the same time.

Whatever we need to do to expand vocabulary is also promoting comprehension as well as expressive and receptive language.  Not just for our kids with autism but for all the children in our classrooms.

Related posts:

1. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?
2. Autism and hyperlexia, part 2: Helping Bobby read
3. Finding the words: Helping a child with autism talk about reading

By Richard Finegan

You may call me a paraeducator, a paraprofessional, a one-on-one aide, a classroom assistant, a special education technician, even a teacher’s aide (though I am there for the student, not the teacher) but please don’t call me a shadow or describe what I do as shadowing.

The term shadow suggests that the aide never leaves the side of the child. That describes a bodyguard, not a paraeducator. I would not be doing my job if I hovered as close to my student as Malia Obama’s Secret Service agent.

True, I am what used to be called (and I still call) a one-on-one aide, and I do move from classroom to classroom with the same child. But my job is to help that student become more independent, more self-regulated and self-sufficient. I’ve never heard anyone explain how this can happen if I am constantly elbow-to-elbow with my kid.

A better analogy to what we do might be a sheepdog: Constantly alert and watching his or her charges but only moving in and out again as circumstances require. Yes, this analogy works better; shepherding is an improvement over shadowing. Even so, I don’t think I’m quite ready to be called a sheepdog either. Smile.

This is more than just a semantic issue. When others refer to me as a shadow or to what I do as shadowing, they consciously or unconsciously suggest that I should be sticking like glue to my student and that I am perhaps not doing my job properly if I am halfway across the classroom taking notes or, more often, walking around interacting with other students.

Worse even is what it suggests to new paraeducators trying to learn to do what we do. What they should be hearing is: Get up. Step back. Give your student some room to grow!

Related posts:

1. Paraeducators need to speak for ourselves
2. Writing rules for a kindergartner with autism
3. 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:

1. Anaphoric cuing: Asking clarifying questions
2. Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

One of the most frequent questions I get, from special education and general education teachers alike, is how to deal with the fact that their students with autism do not pay attention during story time.  Readers with autism are generally not good listeners and often will not only fail to attend to read-alouds, but may disrupt the experience of others when it is going on.

I like to think of myself as a dynamic and interesting teacher, one who can keep a child’s interest most of the time, even when the subject we are learning isn’t utterly fascinating.   At any rate, that’s what I aim for, and it usually happens that kids are engaged most of the time in my classroom.

I love read-alouds!

One of my favorite events of the day, is the read-aloud.  We read high-level books, often novels related to what we’re studying in history, to bring that world alive and show how dry facts aren’t just words in a textbook.  We also read funny stories, fantasy books, and fables.   I like to use accents and unique voices to represent characters, and incorporate a lot of drama into the reading.   My students are usually captivated.  Except the ones with autism.

It used to be really disconcerting to look up from a particularly scary rendition of a scene in a Goosebumps story to see my student Bobby looking off into space and laughing at shadows or dust motes floating in the air.   I became rather discouraged when my best Draco Malfoy imitation didn’t even seem to have any effect on him, nor did my ancient old-lady-Charlotte-the-dying-spider voice.   If I hadn’t understood him and how he perceives sound, I’d have given up all aspirations of becoming a reader for Books on Tape.

“Wah…wah…wah…”

Kids with autism do not tend to be auditory learners and most of them do not respond well to the read-aloud.   In fact, the majority of them drift off into their own worlds when I read aloud to the class.   I am reminded of the Charlie Brown television specials, where the teacher’s voice in class is unintelligible, consisting of droned “Wah…wah…wah….” I imagine that is how my students with autism hear me when I’m reading to them.

It doesn’t matter what tone of voice I use, what accent, or how loudly or softly I intone.  They aren’t really present for the reading.  Not very flattering to any teacher, of course, but even more important, it raises the question of how to support the students’ learning if they aren’t attending to the read-aloud.

What is the purpose of the read-aloud?

If you’re struggling with a reader with autism’s inability to listen to the text, stop for a moment and ask yourself why it’s important.   In evaluating how to handle this situation, it is important to consider the express purpose for the read aloud, and determine whether there are alternative ways to get the objectives met.   So, first consider whether:

• The read-aloud is used for the primary purpose of exposing kids to necessary and important text that is higher than their own reading level.

Kids who do not read at grade level often need grade-level texts read to them in order to be able to participate in literacy activities such as response to literature, literary discussions, and just accessing the classics.  If the objective is related to cultural literacy, then a child’s ability to attend to and learn from a read-aloud may be important.  I think we’d all like for every child to have read certain books by the time they finish elementary school:  Charlotte’s Web comes to mind, for example.  If the book is higher than the child’s independent reading level, then understanding the story read aloud could be an essential expectation. But…if your student doesn’t read the book, can you show the film in class? And if not, can it wait?

• The read-aloud is used to expose the kids to the pleasure of the written word.

Reading fluency is not always strong in the early and intermediate process. We need to help kids hear the text in order for them to develop expectations of text and enjoyment of the process. We do want our children to love reading and get pleasure from the written word. It’s good for kids to experience the flow and fluency of text – many of them will not develop the internal voice as readers unless they first hear it externally.

Whether they hear stories on tape or “live,” the fact is that a voice and an auditory experience is important. If the read-aloud is for the purpose of exposing kids to the pleasure of the written word, we may need to accept that for some kids, it’s not going to happen the way we’d like. Maybe your student with autism will enjoy hearing your voice even though  he or she isn’t retaining the words and ideas themselves.  Maybe your student will hear some of the words you are reading and will use his or her imagination to use those words in a different way. And maybe the student will never come to love the sound of the written word, or understand that words are arranged in a pattern that has melody and fluency. There are other things the child will learn that are equally, if not more important this year.

• The read-aloud is used in writing intruction to show kids how words, the rhythm of language, and rhymes can influence a text.
  

The use of read-aloud to support lessons in writing instruction is a best practice employed by most literacy teachers. We can tell kids how mood, and setting, and action are influenced and directed by the use of language and rhythm, but they need to hear it as well as hear about it. It gives them ideas and inspiration to try the techniques out on their own.

Now, if the way words sound is the entire point of the read aloud, there may be alternative ways to teach the lesson to a child with autism. Bobby may not be able to listen to and completely understand a story in which repeated words or rhymes convey a message or mood, but he can learn about and use rhymes in songs and nursery rhymes just as well. He didn’t learn anything when I read aloud When I Was Young and In The Mountains, but he was easily able to write a little story using a repeated introduction after we sang “Old McDonald” and “Do You Remember?”

• The read-aloud is used as a warm-up or cool-down exercise for kids as they prepare to transition to other tasks.

Many teachers have a read-aloud session immediately after recess or lunch to help kids settle down and get ready for active learning again. Reading aloud to kids to help support transitions or to give them a break from written work or intensive intellectual work is a tried and true strategy that many of us have been using for years. It is derived from the bedtime story, and how many of us don’t have memories of drowsing while our parents read us one last book before turning out the lights? This type of read-aloud not only calms the mind and body, but introduces the concept of reading for relaxation to a child.

• The read-aloud is used as a break from other academic tasks.

Research shows that the best learning is accomplished in cycles of input and output of information. Reading is an excellent respite of intake that can be used after an intensive output of intellectual effort. If reading is for relaxation and transitioning, then a child can gain equivalent results from drawing pictures, rocking, doing a puzzle, or some other pleasurable quiet activity.

While you are doing the reading aloud, your students who are weak in auditory processing can be engaging in separate activities—so long as they are able to do so independently and without disturbing others.  One of my students has always loved to draw dragons, and this is his invariable free choice activity.  When everyone moves to the rug for the read-aloud, he pulls out his sketchbook and begins to draw.  Sometimes his dragon pictures actually end up having something to do with what I’m reading aloud; sometimes they simply express whatever is going on in his own mind.

• The read-aloud is used to engage kids in bringing a period of history or a certain situation they’ve read about in other contexts to life.

Students studying the pioneer period love hearing the Little House books read to them; I remember how the colonial and revolutionary period came alive for me when I read Johnny Tremaine. I link genre studies to our history units; we read Aesop’s fables when we study Ancient Greece and a number of Native American legends when we study early America. We explore the mystery genre by reading The Golden Goblet and A Place in the Sun when we study Egypt, and similar novels based in Rome and Greece. We study the Coming of Age genre when we study early man by reading Maroo and the Winter Cave, Boy of Painted Cave, and Dar and the Spear Thrower.

Very few of these texts are able to be accessed by my students on their own; hearing them read, with accents and emphasis, drama and even passion, helps the kids visualize and synthesize information they’ve been learning from their social studies textbooks.  It is important that kids learn that history is a live and pulsating thing, no question about that.  The plethora of excellent books for children and young adults about historical people and events is terrific.  Kids who cannot read them on their own will miss out on some wonderful pieces and likely will not be able to truly envision the times and circumstances about which they have studied.

On the other hand, they can gain some insights from more visual resources, including some of the great pictorial books about historical eras, films, and doing arts and crafts projects.  Just because a child doesn’t truly hear the story of how Laura Ingalls’ father built a log cabin doesn’t mean that she or he can’t find out about them by building a replica; we can learn about candlemaking from reading a story about Laura and her mother, or we can dip them ourselves.

When the child’s attention is essential…

If you determine that the child’s attention to the read-aloud is essential, and that you want to support his or her participation in the experience, there are a few things you can do as a part of the routine.

Here is a list of some strategies that have worked with some of my students with autism.   In addition to these, I’ve had great success with several of my students with autism by using a read-aloud in conjunction with exercises related to questioning as we read.   This intervention is discussed in another blog entry.

…five possible solution tips

1. Give the student have a copy of the text to follow along with.  Having a visual aid is often helpful in keeping a child’s attention on the read-aloud.
2. Make finger puppets or paper puppets on a craft stick for the child to hold up when a given character is speaking or discussed.  The child will follow along as you read more easily if he or she is waiting to hear from or about a character.
3. Ask your students to provide the sound effects for a story.  If you are reading about a storm, set an auditory signal (“sound effects!” or “It sounded like….”) for them to begin making rain or thunder noises. A child with autism will try to pay attention for the opportunity to participate.
4. Ask your student with autism to draw a picture of what you are reading as she or he listens.
5. Rewrite passages from the text into a readers’ theater experience and assign your student with autism to one of the parts.   Let the kids practice and then perform for a small group.

No cookie cutter children!

Use these modifications sparingly.  If it’s really not important that the child be able to hear the read-aloud, don’t try to force it.  Save the interventions for times when it’s essential.  Readers with autism, by their very nature, do not fit into any cookie-cutter classroom view, and we need to pick and choose the times and methods of required conformance.

Related posts:

1. When a reader with autism needs to respond to literature…
2. Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 2: Helping Bobby read