1. Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network Teaching Students with Autism to Read: A Focus on Comprehension October 13, 2015

2. PaTTAN’s Mission The mission of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) is to support the efforts and initiatives of the Bureau of Special Education, and to build the capacity of local educational agencies to serve students who receive special education services.

3. PDE’s Commitment to Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Our goal for each child is to ensure Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams begin with the general education setting with the use of Supplementary Aids and Services before considering a more restrictive environment.

4. Who is in the Room? Please stand when your role is identified by the presenter… Parent/Guardian Special Education Teacher General Education Teacher Administrator Paraprofessional School Psychologist Speech Pathologist Other? We hope to meet your learning needs by... 1.validating effective practices that you already use. 2.reminding you about effective practices that you may have used, but forgot about. 3.learning about new effective practices.

5. Fist to Five How comfortable are you addressing the comprehension needs of your students?

6. Learning Outcomes Review research supporting scientifically based reading instruction Discuss the 5 essential components of reading instruction Identify and discuss the relationship between oral language, vocabulary and comprehension development Explore resources and strategies to support comprehension for students with autism

7. Autism and Literacy Learning Connections Teaching reading to a student with autism requires special considerations- not one size or approach fits all learners Teachers need to be aware that there are a wide range of learning differences Teaching methods must be flexible

8. It Takes a Team! General/Remedial Reading Educator –Instruction in Reading –Assessment –Programs Speech/Language Pathologist –Oral Language –Assessment Special Educator, Autism Support –Instruction Family Members –EVERYTHING

9. Autism and Literacy Learning Connections Growth in reading is closely tied to levels of oral language Assessment of progress needs to be frequent Children with autism seem to function better when given a systematic set of guidelines to apply to their behavior and in social situations- being predictable and using routines The same systematic approach works in literacy learning

10. Effect of Autism on Comprehension 1. Students have had less literacy instruction 2. Inferences, symbols, and language difficulties 3. Lack of experiences with tasks (classroom experiences) 4. Lack of experience in settings (sensory considerations) 5. Lacking in opportunity to participate and learn from the ‘competent’ learner 6. We lack appropriate reading assessment data especially for non-verbal students

11. Current Scientific Research There is limited research on how to best teach students with autism to read Current research focuses on typical and struggling readers It is not clear if this research translates directly to students with autism Teachers must base their instruction on the research and best practices while considering the characteristics of this student population

12. 12 Background on Reading Research Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffin. 1998) National Reading Panel Report (2000) Beginning to Read (Adams. 1990)

13. 13 Teaching Reading is URGENT!

14. 14 Instructional Planning That Can Improve Reading Outcomes Instruction Assessment For Achievement Goal Based on Data Based on The Goal Measure Growth Based on the Goal

15. The 5 Essential Components of Reading 1.Phonemic Awareness 2.Phonics 3.Fluency 4.Vocabulary 5.Comprehension

16. The Many Strands That Are Woven Into Skilled Reading ● Background Knowledge ● Vocabulary Knowledge ● Language Structures ● Verbal Reasoning ● Literacy Knowledge ● Phonological Awareness ● Decoding (and Spelling) ● Sight Recognition SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension. LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION WORD RECOGNITION increasingly automatic increasingly strategic Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice. (Scarborough, 2001)

17. Why Promote Vocabulary Development? Meaningful Differences in vocabulary knowledge by the age of three. Cumulative Vocabulary Children from professional families 1100words Children from working class families700words Children from low SES families500words Hart & Risley (1995). Meaningful Difference in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

18. Why Promote Vocabulary Development? Cumulative Experience Words heard per hour Words heard in a 100-hour week Words heard in 5,200- hour year 4 years Inpoverished61662,0003 million13 million Working Class 1,251125,0006 million26 million Professional2,153215,00011 million45 million Hart & Risley, 1995

19. The Matthew Effect Based on research by Keith Stanovich and Anne Cunningham The Matthew Effect refers to the Bible parable of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Children who read learn more words, they understand more, so they are motivated to read more – They get RICHER Children who don’t read much, learn fewer words, understand less and are less motivated to read – They get POORER

20. Connections What are the connections between oral language, vocabulary and comprehension?

21. The Importance of Background Knowledge “Cognitive scientists agree that reading comprehension requires prior “domain-specific” knowledge about the things that a text refers to, and that understanding the text consists of integrating this prior knowledge with the words in order to form a “situation model.”* *E.D. Hirsch, The Knowledge Deficit – on the work of Walter Kintsch

22. Balancing Knowledge and Reading Skills How much do you know about baseball??? Students who were good decoders but knew very little about baseball did not comprehend as much as their peers who were weaker decoders but had good domain specific knowledge about the game. But…..both are important! *W.Schneider and J. Korkel, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 14, (1989)

23. A Definition of Comprehension Reading comprehension is the “process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.” (RAND Reading Report, 2002)

24. Comprehension Activities Pre-Reading During Reading Post Reading

25. 25 Comprehension: Pre-Reading Activities Preview text Make predictions Complete a K-W-H-L chart Connect to prior knowledge Preteach basic factual concepts and provide relevant facts needed for comprehension

26. 26 Comprehension: During Reading Activities Have students periodically stop and summarize what they have read (chunk the text) Explicitly teach text structures like main and details, sequence, cause/effect, compare/contrast, description, story elements Use visualization, visuals/photographs, and have students draw pictures to support understanding Use checklists/other visual supports to provide individualized cues to stop and ask for help, how much of the text is to be read, etc. Explicitly teach the meanings of idioms, pronouns, other difficult language concepts

27. 27 Comprehension: After Reading Activities Have students provide a summary of the main idea and details orally, through writing or drawing Teach summarization explicitly (Post-It Note Activity) Make explicit connections to earlier learning Use related stories to create a solid fact base that helps students make text-to-text connections to improve understanding Have students generate questions and answers about the text they just read

28. Visuals to Support Comprehension

29. Visuals continued…

30. Use Graphic Organizers

31. A Note About Scaffolding

32. Research Based Comprehension Strategies Monitoring one’s own comprehension Using graphic and semantic organizers Generating questions Using mental imagery Summarizing Answering questions (National Reading Panel, 2000)

33. Keep in Mind What level is your learner? Word Sentence Paragraph Multiple paragraph text or book

34. Cognitive Theories Be aware that many children with autism that struggle with comprehension may have difficulty with the following: Theory of Mind-difficulty with perspective taking, understanding, and explaining why others think what they think and do what they do Central Coherence-process of deriving meaning from context to create an understanding of the “whole” Executive Function-cognitive process related to planning, organization, execution of plans and self-monitoring (Iland, 2011)

35. Reading Instructional Tips Base your instructional choices on assessment results Plan an I Do, We Do, You Do lesson format Create opportunities for frequent, distributed practice Link prior learning to new learning Include multisensory aspects of the activities Give students opportunities to create their own mental images or provide visual supports (Dodson, 2008)

36. Reading Instructional Tips Incorporate humor into your lessons Bundle skills and strategies to maximize opportunities for distributed practice Modify your instruction if progress monitoring does not show adequate growth Accelerate as well as remediate Connect with your students and incorporate their interests (Dodson, 2008)

37. Turn and Talk Turn and talk to a partner about one new idea you have for your classroom/instruction from this presentation.

38. Resources 50 Nifty Speaking and Listening Activities 50 Nifty Activities for 5 Components and 3 Tiers of Reading Instruction

39. Resources Drawing a Blank: Improving Comprehension Strategies for Readers on the Autism Spectrum By Emily Iland

40. www.PaTTAN.net www.pattan.net Click on Educational Initiatives tab Click on Reading tab Explore the Reading page for resources, videos and upcoming events

41. Contact Information www.pattan.net Kathryn Poggi kpoggi@pattan.net Wendy Farone wfarone@pattan.net Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf, Governor Pennsylvania Department of Education Pedro Rivera, Secretary of Education Pat Hozella, Director Bureau of Special Education