Over a Decade Later

 

Looking Back

This is a photo of my oldest son at about the time I started this blog.

He was reading, but not comprehending. At the time, I didn't put recognizable photos of him in the blog to protect his privacy. 

He's an adult now. Reading comprehension is still a challenge.

He has struggled through countless textbooks. He breaks them down into pieces, no magic strategies, but lots of well practiced ones. He  has managed to keep the information in his head long enough to pass his tests.

Just like in the past, he still enjoys joke books and (rhyming) poems.

Some thoughts from this time about that time.

1 Keep finding reading about topics your kid loves

2 Try to think of any interest in reading as success

3 Demand help from your kid's school

It's been years since I posted, but I pay a little each month to keep this blog available as a resource for anyone who might find it useful.

Enjoy the journey!

- Spectrum Mom

Education Friday - Vanderbilt Reading Clinic Part One

In January my son started at the Vanderbilt Reading Clinic.
He starts High School this Fall, so he really needs to improve
his reading comprehension.
His tutor agreed that I could post how they work
together here (thank you!)

1. Visualize and Verbalize (workbook 4a) – 

In this activity we break activities down sentence 

by sentence to create visual images and talk about 

how as we read we use the author’s words to change our picture.  

We answer comprehension questions and talk about how we tell 

the difference between what the reader thinks and knows versus 

what the author tells us in the text.

2.Reading strategies (History text) – 

Before reading, during reading, 

and after reading strategies to help us make sense of the text.  

We’ve also started working on summarizing the paragraphs in order to gain meaning as we read.  

- Before Reading:  

Scan the text (Title, Pictures, Headings – ask ourselves what they mean?), 

See if we can identify the author’s purpose (Persuade, Inform, Entertain), 

Set a Purpose for Reading 

(Ask Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions regarding the text), 

Tap our Background Knowledge (what do we know about the topic?)

- During Reading: Look for new information 

(that answers our questions, that is something we didn’t know, the describes the main idea/details of the passage), 

Ask Clarifying Questions, 

Make Connections between sentences and paragraphs, 

Make Predictions, 

Create mental images, 

Summarize as we go to ensure we understand what we’re reading.

- After Reading – Summarize the reading 

(Who/What, Did What, Where, When, Why, How, and What), 

Check to see if we answered all of our questions, 

Answer the questions using what you know and what the text tells us.

Progress – The reader has shown improvements in identifying when his answer is his thoughts or the author’s.  

He is able to complete the pre-reading strategies and can independently look for information during reading.  

We will continue working on the other strategies as we go.  

When answering questions that require inferences, 

I encourage the reader to think about what he would do 

and why he would do it in order to try and connect to the text.  

Reader really enjoys describing mental images of the text and 

has shown improvements in changing his image as he reads.  

We have focused mostly on Before Reading and have just started 

practicing During Reading 

(looking for information, making connections, and summarizing).  

We will continue to work towards the rest of the During Reading strategies and After Reading.

Summer Reading - The Giver

Long time readers may have noted that I have not yet wailed over the choice of summer reading books that my son must read this Summer. There are several reasons for this:

1. There was no choice to make, just two books he needs to read.
2. The two books are good books.
3. When you're going into eighth grade, there are mighty few inappropriate subjects any more, sad or glad, you should be ready to read it.

Of course, my boy is not ready to read these books. The books are age appropriate, and he's lagging behind in several key areas. 

So we started with The Giver, the milder of the two books and one I thought he had some connection to through The Giver treehouse at Cheekwood. Plus I have read it before and there is a ton of information about it out there.

It has been hard going, and asking for help online brought up a new concept for me-working memory. Is my son's inability to remember what words mean due to a deficiency in this area? 
Or is it that he cannot visualize what he reads?

His lack of comprehension goes beyond his inability to understand words from their context. He was unable to recall what a hatchet was when he encountered the word "hatchet" in the text.
Very disturbing, since he read Hatchet for school and I thought he actually engaged with it rather strongly.

The Giver interests him little.
In case you don't know or can't recall, The Giver was the first really popular dystopian novel for young adults 
(if you're feeling bitter about Hunger Games, 
blame Lowry (or credit her if you're a Hunger fan))
Jonas is about to go through the ceremony of twelve in
his community and find out what his lifetime job assignment will be. Much to his alarm, he is given the previously unknown to him task of Receiver of Memory. The knowledge he receives from the
current receiver reveals to him how much of feeling and life 
has been kept from the people of the community in order to keep 
everyone calm and cooperative. As his memories and feelings 
deepen, he finds he can no longer accept the status quo. The 
revelation of what "release" really means drives him to action,
and he flees to freedom.
What happens to Jonas at the end of the book is ambiguous, and 
upset my husband. It did not upset my son who took the words
literally (no surprise there).

Education Friday - Pintrest

Autism Reads

I review and discuss books for children with autism on the autismreads.com website and Facebook page.

Pintrest surprised me.
I thought the site irrelevant to my interests,
but there's a lot of education/autism resources there.
Since people searching for books about autism for kids 
often wind up here, I've created a 
 Pintrest board for books about autism for kids.
Also, a board for teaching reading basics
and a  board for reading comprehension.
Of course, there are a lot of amazing boards
out there. 

Reading Advice from Resources for Educators

Sometimes I forget the basics when working on reading

with my boy. This method,  from a 2010 Middle Years

handout, resembles KWL. The Check Understanding

step can be especially valuable for readers with autism

struggling with comprehension.

Textbook Super Sleuths

Like investigators on a case, good readers examine clues, 

and fit pieces together. These steps can help your middle schooler 

understand the material, connect with what she’s reading, and use the 

information in textbooks.  

Look ahead 

Before starting, your child should identify what 

the section is about. Checking the table of contents or end-of- 

chapter questions can provide valuable clues. She can also 

browse headings, diagrams, and illustrations. This will prepare her 

for the type of reading she’ll be doing and help her zero in on key 

points. 

Check understanding 

After reading a sentence, paragraph, or chapter, your 

youngster can ask, “Did this make sense?” If not, she should try

 to pinpoint where she got lost and go back and reread the pages. 

To shed light on the meaning, she also might find definitions for words

she doesn’t recognize, make a chart of the information, or write 

a summary in her own words.  

Put it in context 

Once your middle grader is finished, she should think 

about how the material fits with what she knows. For example, 

how does the information build on another topic she has learned about? 

What was the writer’s opinion, and does she agree with it? 

Making connections will help her master the material so she can 

discuss it in class and draw on it when doing homework.

copyright 2010

Resources for Educators, a division of Aspen Publishers Inc.

Education Friday - Guest Moms 2

More Mom Wisdom on Reading Comprehension

"It does get better with time as their life perspective changes and they have more life experience. For example, when you are reading a mystery novel, you start to figure out what you think might happen based on the knowledge you have from reading other books, movies etc. With D, we used to use cliff notes and he would read that over first and then read the book for better comprehension since he had the idea of the story. Another strategy we used for him was to highlight text as he was reading picking out main ideas and important text. That helped. In college, he uses a tape recorder to record the lecture and then he can listen to it at home at his leisure to gain comprehension of all that was said."

"It takes a lot of patience, to be sure. Sometimes I stop often and ask J questions, and let him ask me. I find he does better if I explain the plot details to him before we read a book or watch a movie. Then he gets interested and more attentive and is able to follow better

I have found that telling him beforehand what it was all about for longer books and movies tends to help him get through the parts that are more 'tedious' for him, because there's so much context and language that is difficult to him. If he understands where it's going it helps him stick it out and understand it better."

"I have begun asking A to ask ME questions about something she just read to me or something we read together."

What works for you and your child?

Education Friday - The Literacy Web Part Two

   Reading comprehension is amazingly difficult to assess in children with autism because there are too many variables. Is the child able to understand but not express their understanding? Is the type of test appropriate? Is it the vocabulary? My son often seems to understand words in isolation but be confused by the same words in a sentence-

the opposite of what most children experience, and a problem as

his class focuses on "context clues." 

  Again, think of a web rather than a ladder. Give the student

many ways to demonstrate knowledge: ask questions in song, accents, or by writing, give extra time, and the option to circle answers.*

Some students may respond in more depth by drawing, acting, pantomiming, or creating collages and dioramas based on the

reading.

But even if the child still struggles to show mastery,

opportunities for reading and literacy activities should continue

while the teacher continues to look for better ways to test and

support comprehension.

In a think-aloud** strategy the teacher explains what she predicts

will happen in the text. Students may enact a story, process, or

historical event. Students may also take turns teaching in 

summarizing, questioning, explaining, and predicting.***

If you're interested in finding out more, see the bibliographic 

notes below. Paula Kluth's research summaries are invaluable 

because until very recently, literacy studies and strategies specifically for children with autism were few and far between. And there continues to be a need to draw from all literacy sources because our kids learn in individual ways.

Kluth's most important message here is every kid with autism

can be literate. Always assume that, never the reverse,

and give every child as many opportunities as possible

to prove you right.

-Spectrum Mom

*Chapter 8 "Seeing Students with Autism as Literate" in You're Going to Love This Kid.

Ideas suggested by *D. Williams in Autism: An Inside-Out Approach (1996), **Harvey &

Goudvis Strategies That Work (2000) and Wilhelm Improving Comprehension with

Think-Aloud Strategies (2001) and ***Palinscar & Brown Cognition and Instruction (1984).

Photo from www.whatsthatbug.com all rights reserved.

Research Redux

Why do we know so little about teaching
reading comprehension to children with
autism?


Because there have been very few studies.
The study I mentioned last time by Chiang
and Lin (2007) searched for research on the 
topic. Of 754 studies that touched on autism 
& reading, only 11 included at least one 
participant with autism, 
focused on reading comprehension, and 
used an experimental model to test
the effectiveness of the method.


Add in the fact that reading
comprehension meant either sight word
recognition or text comprehension,
and it becomes obvious why there
is no consensus (to put it mildly)
on how to teach text comprehension
to children with autism.


For the most part, all methods
-which ranged from flashcards
to peer tutoring to the 
UCLA reading & writing
program to computer instruction - 
helped students learn "targeted skills."


This is good news, because
all the interventions showed results. 
But as a guide to what to do, 
these studies all fall short since
there is no comparison
and so no indication
what intervention
works best.


And the authors found
no, 0, zilch  studies on 
teaching reading comprehension to 
students with Asperger's,
and little on students
with high functioning
autism.


Next post, silly poems.


-Spectum Mom


Thanks to Kayla Jackson (Speech Therapist/
Independent Consultant/Brown Center)
for bringing this article to my attention.
If you would like to read the article in
full, check http://foa.sagepub.com/cgi/
content/abstract/22/4/259