
  2. Hi Guest, welcome to the TES Community!


    Don't forget to look at the how to guide.

    Dismiss Notice

Developing reading comprehension skills in autistic pupil

Discussion in 'Special educational needs' started by Loony tunes, Jul 23, 2011.

  1. Loony tunes

    Loony tunes New commenter

    Hi, I have a pupil in my class with autism. He has a reading age of about 10 years in that he is able to say aloud the words yet has very little comprehension. We have a whole class use of symbols to support literacy and have recently adapted all our reading books so they have widgit symbols. This has made some difference.
    What else can I do to help him and develop his comprehension skills.
  2. languageisheartosay

    languageisheartosay Occasional commenter

    I like anything that could be called 'read and do'. At the most basic it could be matching a single word label to a picture (perhaps with both coming from your reading books to begin with for confidence building) but you can work up through the number of key words that have to be understood, including the 'reversible' sentences like the t-shirt is on the boat versus the boat is on the t-shirt. Devising possible sentences is tricky but silly ones are just as good and you can make your pictures by dragging symbols about the page. PM me if this isn't clear! You can write instructions for drawing and/or colouring (and some computer Paint programs can be used to fulfil the instructions). You can use a clear outline picture from any resource you can photocopy (incl. some designed for working on language or with EAL) and then write instructions for actions like tick the.../ circle the.../ write your name in the middle at the bottom. There are quite a few resources you can purchase with ideas like this but many will be too difficult to start with - he could read the instructions but not know what to do - especially with the books from the US which may feature different word/grammar usage. You can write instructions with a number and the name of a sorting toy you have and then develop that. So e.g. get 2 cars (2 key words)... get 2 red cars (3)...... put 2 red cars in the blue box (6) - just work up slowly through the number of key words that have to be understood. Wherever there's a choice, that's another concept to be acted on. (Sorry if you knew all that already!)
  3. Loony tunes

    Loony tunes New commenter

    Thanks Languageisheretosay - that's really helpful. Thank you!

Share This Page