Tag Archives: teaching strategies

Inferences: “He’s wearing a jacket so it must be his birthday”

By Sara Finegan Students on the autism spectrum don’t tend to make inferences deliberately.  It’s not that they never make them; they just aren’t aware of it and it needs to be brought to their attention before we can teach them to transfer the skill from their own lives to the written word.  It’s important [...]

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Intermezzo: A word about the spectrum

By Sara Finegan The autism spectrum is a vast and invisible entity and as I explore and write about the world of the reader with autism, you are probably wondering “well, just a damned minute here. Is she writing about someone like my kid, or does she teach the high-level kids who just have some [...]

Out, out, damned plot! Keeping track of “Who…did what?”

By Sara Finegan Nick loved to bring high level fiction books to school, and eagerly showed them to me each time he walked into the classroom. He proudly informed classroom visitors that he brought his own independent reading from home.  Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones were two of his favorite characters, though when pressed, he [...]

Intermezzo: Reader’s theater and the reader with autism

By Sara Finegan The nuts and bolts of reading instruction often have not a lot to do with sustained reading of any kind, being really comprised of instruction and guided practice in some sort of comprehension or decoding strategy.  Kids who can’t read or can’t understand what they’re reading don’t get a lot of joy [...]

Mission Statement

By Sara Finegan When I began teaching in Southern California several years ago, I assumed that the fact that an entire department of my school district was devoted to autism meant that I would be able to get information on best practices and the latest research to support my students in learning.  Accordingly, I would [...]

About Sara Finegan

Sara Finegan has taught in the public and private school sectors for more than 25 years, in both general and special education settings. She has led workshops on learning and teaching methods as well as content-area instruction. She’s taught students with a variety of learning abilities including GATE, students diagnosed with emotional disturbances, high-functioning autism, [...]

Hello world!

You have found us, readerswithautism.com We are a new blog dedicated to assisting parents and teachers of children on the autism spectrum who are having difficulty with reading or comprehension.  The website is still under active construction as of August 17, 2009.  Bookmark us and check back in a few days if you don’t find [...]