Everyday Teaching Autism Resources

Teaching reading comprehension to students with autism has been one of many challenges for special educators. There is no “one size fits all” method in teaching reading. Especially when it comes to reading comprehension, we should consider each student’s uniqueness in behavior, language, and other skill levels.

What are reading comprehension goals for autism? The answer might vary depending on age and skill levels. At an elementary level, we are heavily focused on teaching decoding words (sight words), comprehending those words/phrases and sentences. Then, we will move on to a very short passage.

Edmark Reading Program

Edmark is one of the oldest, most established sight word programs available in the special education market..I have encountered several different reading programs in the past and Edmark is my go-to.  It is mainly because our students are strong visual learners and tend to grasp sight words/vocabularies quickly and more easily than any other components of reading-  Repetition, the pace could also play an important role. 

Edmark consists of  2 levels of difficulties and Functional Word Series. It is also available in print and computer format. I use both- depending on the students’ responsiveness. I have a student who becomes extremely distracted by a computer- However, most of my students are motivated by the computer version. 

The format is very simple and visual, so my students always enjoy them. Next, hands-on matching sentence/phrase to a corresponding picture activity- This is a great way to teaching reading comprehension to students with autism

reading comprehension autism worksheets

Visuals to Support Reading Comprehension

Given a book to read in 1:1 setting, students will read out loud the book from beginning to the end, and several comprehension questions will be given. This is where many of my students struggle the most, and end up not passing a certain level.

As a support person in our school, I was always wondering how we can better teach our kids or prepare them for this test? Not my favorite part of teaching, teaching to prepare for the test, yet it is important to teach a strategy. We all need good reading strategies in special education classes.

One of my colleagues introduced this visual with 5 Finger Retell. It seems super useful for students and teachers to visually guide the questions and thought process in reading.

1. Who were the main characters? 
2. Where was the story taking place?
3. Can you tell me what happened in the beginning, middle, and end?