Simple Reading Activity for Students with Autism

How to teach reading is one of the most frequently asked questions for special education teachers like me. Decoding, and sounding out letters and words, is very difficult for many students with language delays. For students with autism, this is true even more.

When working with a child with autism or who has limited language, I often find the “Whole Word” approach seems to make more sense knowing the fact that our guys are VISUAL learners. They respond well to visuals in their environment and are great at visualizing and memorizing shapes of letters and other concepts. That’s good news at first. However, we all feel like hitting the wall pretty soon because kids do not recognize or read words if they haven’t been exposed at least once. In ABA, we often call this “a fail in generative learning or adduction”. It’s definitely a problem.

In my class, I use both phonics and whole-word approaches to teach reading. They will be exposed to the words everywhere paired with real objects, pictures, and so on. While teaching the letter sounds and blending (or family, rhyming), I would also drill them with high-frequency words by sight.

This task card is aligned to ABLLS-R, Q5 Matching Words to Pictures. Students will read the word, and point or put a cloth pin to respond. It’s a perfect autism resource for special education teachers, ABA therapists, and homeschool teachers to work on reading simple words. Simply, print out and laminate these cards for durability. Total 108 words (with real pictures) included.