Many students with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate difficulties in reading comprehension. These difficulties may be attributed to deficits in Theory of Mind, Weak Central Coherence, and Executive Functioning.
Some children with ASD know their alphabet letters at a very young age. However, they may lack other important early literacy skills, such as understanding why people read and write, or understanding the characters' actions or intentions in a story.
Given that individuals with autistic traits have greater difficulty in reading social cues, they may be far less likely to recognize that a message is being sent, which messages are meant for whom, what is being implied, and perhaps most detrimental of all, the signs of imminent danger.
Reading comprehension may be a problem, because many children with autism and Asperger Syndrome may not grasp the main idea or theme of the text.
Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reading profiles characterized by higher decoding skills and lower reading comprehension.
Hyperlexia is a condition where preschool children display an intense early interest in letters in a way that is very advanced for their age. They can decode words accurately, but without understanding their meaning.
Reading is a struggle for adults and children with ADHD alike. Many children with ADHD have difficulty with reading comprehension,8 while both adults and kids with ADHD tend to lose interest, miss details and connections, lose track of where they are on the page, and become easily distracted.
Signs of High-Functioning Autism in Children
May appear more mature for their age and have above-average intelligence. A tendency to avoid eye contact. Trouble deviating from a routine or adapting to changes. Trouble making friends and maintaining social relationships or not “fitting in” with peers.
Often children on the spectrum will have excellent reading and spelling skills, but may struggle with reading comprehension, as this ties into communication and understanding expression. If you are homeschooling a child on the autism spectrum, reading may be one of your main concerns.
Other children with ASD may read very early and show intense interest in certain subjects and want to read everything they can on that topic. Whether your child has mild or severe ASD, making reading a fun activity can help your child's learning and social skills.
Sensory Issues
Many people with autism experience sensory processing disorder. This is more commonly known as sensory overload. Noise, crowds, bright lights, strong tastes, smells, and being touched can feel unbearable to someone with HFA. This makes going to restaurants, movies, and shopping malls difficult.
Children who are autistic typically perform at average or above average levels when it comes to decoding written language. However, they are generally better at sounding out and identifying words than understanding what they have read. This may be because comprehension is a more abstract skill than decoding.
There are other brain disorders that mimic autism symptoms, like ADHD and anxiety disorders, including selective mutism. Autism can be misdiagnosed as another disorder with some shared symptoms.
Children with ASD may have difficulty developing language skills and understanding what others say to them. They also often have difficulty communicating nonverbally, such as through hand gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions.
Symptoms of High-Functioning Autism
Like all people on the autism spectrum, people who are high functioning have a hard time with social interaction and communication. They don't naturally read social cues and might find it difficult to make friends. They can get so stressed by a social situation that they shut down.
In learning, autistic children may struggle with interpreting texts, social interactions, abstract ideas or literary devices (metaphors, idioms, sarcasm), and understanding instructions. If a child with autism has additional conditions, such as learning disabilities, this can create further challenges in comprehension.
Use pictures and flashcards. Many children with autism are visual learners and benefit when a whole word is accompanied by its picture. Remember to present the picture and the printed word on the same side of the card if using flashcards.
Being a visual approach type or learner is often a barrier for autistic children when learning English language. Because they are unable to learn and acquire language in the same way that other typically developing youngsters do through traditional vocabulary learning, they find it difficult to learn vocabulary.
Autistic children are often good at learning by heart (rote memory). Many autistic children can remember large chunks of information, like conversations from movies, words to a song, number plates and so on.
Although the exact cause of autism is still unknown, there is evidence to suggest that genetics play a significant role. Since autism is less prevalent in females, autism was always thought to be passed down from the mother. However, research suggests that autism genes are usually inherited from the father.
A child with level 1 autism may understand and speak in complete sentences, but have difficulty engaging in back-and-forth conversation. Children with ASD level 1 experience some inflexibility of behavior, like difficulty switching between tasks, staying organized, and planning.
Some kids have a learning disability that makes reading difficult to learn. Others come to school without the literacy. experiences they need to become readers. Some children struggle because they've received poor or inadequate reading instruction.
Some of the more common reading problems in kids with ADHD are related to reading fluency, including skipping over words, sentences, and punctuation, rushing through the material, and losing track of their spot on the page.
The more detailed questions or the questions that require a complete understanding of the story or the information do become problematic. Thus it is the laboriousness of reading and the lack of fluency that is primarily the problem when in the presence of a genetic ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) disorder.