pre-literacy goals for ASD child

Why not just teach him to read?

OK, in saying that, I am assuming that his verbal skills are close to age-appropriate. If he still has trouble communicating, then he needs work on vocabulary development, language structure, social aspects of communication, listening, etc, etc. These can be classed under language skills (and I certainly hope you have some of those goals) but of course they are also pre-literacy.

If he is communicating OK, and is of normal intelligence at age 5, start right in teaching him the alphabet and the sound code represented by the letters. He can be *really* reading (as opposed to faking and guessing and wandering in a swamp of confusion, worse for a kid with autism) in six months to a year. You can use PG or any number of good phonics programs; ask me for my long tutoring outlines if you are interested.

I forgot to include that he is essentially non-verbal, although he does have a vocabulary of about 30 words and a few phrases. It is not uncommon, though, to find a non-verbal child with ASD who can decode the written word better than communicating with the spoken word, probably due to apraxia. Also, he apparently reads media print as he can discriminate between the scooby doo video v. blue or wiggles. One of the goals in his iep two years ago was turning one page at a time. He accomplished that. There’s nothing in his present iep about teaching him his ABCs or numbers. Also, getting an accurate intelligence assessment with a child with ASD is difficult since they don’t perform well on standardized tests. The best assessment that we can get though is 2-3 years old.

anita

I have taught nonverbal autistic kids to read (well maybe at a 1st grade level) but they were reading. I used Rebus as it combines pictures with words and then you gradually withdraw the pictures. Peobody used to have a Rebus program. There has been more development and it is at http://www.widgit.com/widgitrebus/. Pearson Early Learning (http://www.pearsonearlylearning.com/index.html) has another progam (haven’t seen it or anything and the website isn’t too helpful). Edmark thru Proed.com also uses some rebus ($$ program though). The program is a mostly sight word recognition program, with stories, etc.

I think that one could create a rebus program easily enough. Words like “the” are represented with pics of a finger point and prepositions are represented by a box with the a dot inside, on , over. Don Johnston (www.donjohnston.com) carries a couple cool programs that might be useful. They carry writing with Symbols (PC only) and Picture it (PC and Mac) which you can make stories with yourself.

One of the problems I had with the Peobody rebus is that the stories are out of the experience with autistic kids who are more here and now oriented so the newer software might work out better.

Also I don’t know what you are using for communication. (Although like anita I know some autistic kids who do better with reading than oral communication. I don’t know any many who actually decode. I would say that most are sight readers.) Anyway with sign language you can teach some endings (ing , s, ed); the; a that would help in reading. Gallaudet press puts out some read/sign books that might be useful. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/signedenglishchildrensbooks.html

Another useful activity is to make up your own books (there might be some of these with one word or so) with pics of common activities and objects. Then you go thru with them with your child, signing the object, and lookign at the print. Later you can add more print. This was a very popular activity with my classes of autistic kids!

If you got the point of the kid really saying sounds, speech, and so on, I think LiPs might work nicely. It might even help in speech development.

I wouldn’t bother with the really preliteracy goals. If he/she sees a point to reading, then he will learn the page turning and the left to right sequence can be learned thru actually doing, rather than preparing to do. Teaching the alphabet in isolation is fairly meaningless, as the names of the letters don’t really correspond to sounds. Autistic kids are quite good at memorizing meaningless material!!

I might have more ideas so ask away.

HTH,

—des

I am not at all into word-memorization programs. If he can memorize, he can memorize phonics sounds as easily or more easily than whole words.

If he has a spoken vocabulary of 30 words, well, there’s a place to start. Sounds of m and o, mom; sounds of d and a, dad; an d so on.
Then you can teach more sounds and vocabulary using books as a backup.

I use a very extremely limited vocabulary reading series with all kids below about 1.8 reading level; it just plain works. The first book has a grand total of 17 words, and the illustrations are beautifully clear and realistic. The clarity, simplicity, realism, and repetition might be something that would work for him.
The series is the *old* Ladybird Key Words reading scheme, books 1a and 1b through 6a and 6b highly recommended. It has recently been republished (due to continuied popular demand) by Penguin in England. Go to Penguin.uk (note .uk, NOT .com) and do a search.

I back this up with good phonics teaching so the learning can be generalized. Any good complete phonics program will do, although the best I have found is Check and Double Check (only this series recommended!) from scholarschoice.ca (note .ca, NOT .com)

I have worked with children who have Autism, and each child is different and as a whole they are extremely visual and sometimes music and sounds bothers them. I like the suggestions that were given to you about the Rebus symbols.

The latest program that I have used is called Writing with Symbols it is by Widgit and Meyer Johnson. It uses the PECS pictures along with the Writing with Symbols pictures.

Children with Autism memorize pictures and some are word callers, meaning they are incredible “readers” but what they are using is their “visual” skills and not their auditory skills in regards to phonemic awareness (PA). PA doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to them but pictures, and symbols do.

Foremost for children with autism is communication and literacy is secondary.

Virginia H, normally I very much agree on the phonic sounds vs. whole words, but in this case, this is a nonverbal autistic child. The idea of memorizing sounds without having much of a basis in actual use of language makes little sense. These sounds are a lot less meaningful than whole words, which are often quite attractive to autistic kids. (Letters are too but they often get to be a whole separate thing for the kid to stim on—perhaps they will like the shape.)Unlike letters, you can attach words with pictures that are meaningful, as the major goal at this point is LANGUAGE and not reading. You won’t get much past a 1-4th grade reading level this way, but when and if the child starts talking, then you will have a no. of useful preliminary reading skills. The other thing is that you add yet another way for the child to communicate. Another aspect is that you get the kid focused on meaning. I know this is a bad word in regular reading, but we are talkign here of kids who often get quite sidelined re: details
and avoid meaning.

I have worked with autistic kids for some 20 years and not met one who really learned to read using phonics (I am not talking about Aspergers or HFA here.) and this includes adults.

Phonemic awareness is so poor that, from what I understand of kids who eventually did learn to talk, is that all speech sounds like “guggledegoo, etc.” LiPs might actually help, but it is such an expensive program— and no guarantee that it would help, but it at least is based on speech therapy principles.

Sensitivity to sound as a previous poster mentioned is really high, and some autistic adults have talked about certain specific sounds bothering them ie the “sss” sound.

So I’d pretty much say no to phonics unless the kid has started to speak much more normally.

Keep in mind, I think this is a pretty unusual situation on this board as we usually are talking about ld with speech and language and not nonverbal autistic kids.

—des

I kept trying to post this yesterday but my cat kept playing with the keyboard! I was just going to say that at 5-6 there really isn’t too much of a way to tell how high functioning he might be. I hope you really work on the communication. I would not be afraid to use alternatives like signs or PECs (they do not get in the way of oral communication, the research is very clear on this.)

BTW, autistic kids often will not have nice CVC words as their only speech.
Often it is something related to their current passion like “septagram”, “Thomas (the train)” or “Enterprise”.

My nephew, now 16 and talks too much :-), could not say his own 4 letter name at age 5. However, he would walk in someone’s house and immediately identify them by the vacuum cleaner brand and model. He still worries that my Hoover is not good enough.

—des

Thanks for all the responses. I will certainly check these programs out. To respond to some things mentioned in the posts: We are presently using PECS with him. It’s a great system and we’ve seen much improvement the past year in behavior. We are now just venturing into sign language, primarily to build receptive language and to help with word endings he does say. For example, he says “tag” but leaves the “g” off so will begin working in that area with his speech. Apparently, though, his speech production is much greater at home than school. Either that, or they haven’t figured out what he’s saying. We are also having him tested for assistive technology. A couple of responses mentioned that children with ASD who read are using great visual skills. I do have a tendency to agree with this, but I have been to a couple of workshops where both “experts” say they are decoding. I still doubt their theory, though.

It is just difficult for me to think of teaching sight words, but at least it’s a starting point.

anyway, thanks again.
anita

The Ladybird (older) reading books I was mentioning are actually based on a sight word plan; Book 1 has the most common words plus some really basic nouns, here, is, a, the, is, in, dog, tree, ball plus the two names Peter and Jane. It has a grand total of 17 words of vocabulary. I use it as a starter with all non-readers because it is so basic, but it does seem that this very limited vocabulary might help this child too. Especially with the very very clear illustrations. I do like to back it up with phonics so that the learning cazn generalize later.

>Thanks for all the responses. I will certainly check these programs out. To respond to some things mentioned in the posts: We are presently using >PECS with him. It’s a great system and we’ve seen much improvement >the

It’s a wonderful system. I had a 25 year old woman, lots of behavior problems and no hx of any expressive language pick it up. She would go all over the building to find me— a big deal for someone without any communication.

>past year in behavior. We are now just venturing into sign language, primarily to build receptive language and to help with word endings he >does say. For example, he says “tag” but leaves the “g” off so will begin

What I said about phonemic awareness. You gotta have it for phonics, at least to the point that you are saying 3 letter words with all the endings.
I think LiPs might make some sense. But then you would have to have a tutor or the center at whatever an hour and not really get the whole program. OTOH, just the mouth pics (not to worry about the labels and all) for the consonants would be pretty good. The manual is something like $100 though and very speech therapist oriented.

I have heard of reading used in this very limited way— he learns some of the consonant sounds/ letters, ie the major ones. And you use them to assist him in saying words he is trying to say. So if he is trying to say “tag”, you show him the “g” and say “g” (not guh)— you aren’t doing letter NAMES— might use a mirror here. And then that might visually cue him for the word. But then the main purpose isn’t reading, it’s speech. I don’t know if I make myself clear. You don’t use words outside his experience, etc.

>working in that area with his speech. Apparently, though, his speech production is much greater at home than school. Either that, or they
>haven’t figured out what he’s saying. We are also having him tested for

I’d bet a bit of both.

>assistive technology. A couple of responses mentioned that children with ASD who read are using great visual skills. I do have a tendency to agree with this, but I have been to a couple of workshops where both “experts” say they are decoding. I still doubt their theory, though.

I wonder which experts these are, as I don’t believe them. NOW if you are talking about high functioning kids, yes. There are hyperlexic kids. They can pretty much decode anything. I sort of speak from experience on this, as I am not formally dxed but I started reading at age 3. I did decode. My comprehension was/isn’t that great. I can decode upside down and backwards and I understand this is pretty much typical. I think it is sort of savant ability because the comprehension can be almost non-existent.
I have a lot of Autistic characteristic, like Aspergers. Of course some Asperger kids are dyslexic- I think a high percentage.

But mostly autistic kids read by sight. Eventually some of them can go back and learn the phonics. The big problem is 1) the words that they say aren’t going to be the CVC ones and 2) the phonemic awareness and then 3) maybe the thing about your main emphasis should be on communication. So I wouldn’t really be reading stories. (Although I taught the Peobody Rebus— it was things like “the cat is in the tree’, etc. Though the kids could do it, I wonder now if it meant much). The new programs allow you to put anything into pictures/rebus. So I would do things like what you do during the day; things to expect; that sort of thing. I don’t know if you have seen Carol Gray’s social stories, but these are little stories so that kids know what is going to happen when they go places, what to do in different situations, etc. They are mostly cartoony sort of drawings.

The other thing is to do the book like I suggested. This could be things he wants, likes, familar things. This is a nice communication aid. You can also add the words to the PECs.

>It is just difficult for me to think of teaching sight words, but at least it’s a starting point.

I think you should think of it as more communication. The trouble with most books is they are going to be out of his experience. So you have to do a very here and now sort of presentation. The Ladybird books for example. Well who are “Peter” and “Jane”? I doubt they would mean a thing to him. But say he reads “ice cream”. Not exciting. But then he goes and eats ice cream. Now that’s exciting! :-)

And the trouble with pre-literacy goals (ie ABCs) is they don’t do anything at all. He isn’t going to learn anything else about reading because the alphabet per se doesn’t teach reading. And he isn’t going to learn better communication. The left to right thing is easier to teach by doing than by setting as a pre-literacy thing.

Another thing you can do ala deaf ed. school is plaster cards with the names of things on them. So you have “chair” , “lamp”, etc all over your house. Have fun. :-)

>anyway, thanks again.
anita[/quote]

—des