Tag Archives: fluency

Is decoding overrated?

If you spend any time at all thinking about how you read, you are undoubtedly going to realize that you actually use your phonemic skills to decode words less than 10% of the time. Maybe less than 5%. What do readers do, really, at all but the primer stage? We recognize words.

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 [...]

Finding the words: Helping a child with autism talk about reading

By Sara Finegan Weak reading comprehension for children with autism is a dysfunctional cycle that can be broken if we work at it over time.  The cycle is this: Autism involves expressive and receptive language deficits. Kids with receptive language disorders have difficulty understanding what words mean.   Kids with expressive language disorders have difficulty using [...]