Positively Autism ~ Teaching Literacy to the Student with Autism ~ July/August, 2008

"We Read From a Real Book"
Teaching Literacy to the Student with Autism
Volume 3, Issue 5 ~ July/August, 2008

"A Land We Can Share"
Excerpts from the book by Paula Kluth and Kelly Chandler-Olcott

From the chapter, "What is Autism?"

Ray, a student with autism, was educated from second to fifth grade in a facility for students with that label. When he turned 12, his parents pushed their school district to place him in his neighborhood middle school. After several meetings between Ray's parents and educators, a visit to the middle school, and some extended planning sessions, inclusive schooling became a reality for Ray.

It was not, however, a smooth or easy process for Ray, his parents, or the educational team. Staff members questioned their ability to provide appropriate supports for their new student, and they wondered whether Ray would be able to participate in lessons.

Despite these initial concerns, Ray's teachers were committed to his success and therefore devoted time and energy to learn about their new student and to explore adaptations and supports that would facilitate his participation. For instance, when the class discussed The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 (Curtis, 1997), Ray's book club—a group of students reading and discussing the same self-selected text—met on the couches in the corner of the classroom because the seating was more comfortable for him. Ray, as always, brought two copies of the book to the discussion group (one he used for the reading exercise and one he used mostly as a companion or comfort item of sorts). Ray could not read the novel on his own because he had only recently had access to reading instruction. He listened to the book on audiotape to prepare for class. He also worked with a school reading specialist to learn some of the vocabulary words from the story and work on his decoding skills. During their time together, the reading specialist found a short passage from the novel that Ray could read fluently and prepared him to share it with his group. Once in his group, Ray had a hard time waiting for his turn, so his classmates asked him to share his response first, and they used his answer as a jumping-off point for the rest of their talk.

Fascination-Focused Books

From our perspective, one promising way to engage students with autism in improving their vocabularies is the use of what we have dubbed "fascination books." Many individuals with autism have a deep interest in one or more topics. Some interests are commonly seen across individuals with autism (e.g., trains, animals, weather), while others seem more unique to an individual. Good examples of the latter can be found in autobiographical writing by Sean Barron {Barron & Barron, 1992), in which he shares that he has been fascinated at different points in his life by the number 24 and by dead-end streets.

Any of the interests students bring to the classroom might be used to develop materials that will help them learn new vocabulary and develop what Ryder and Graves (1998) call "word consciousness." One student with autism, Joe, initially struggled with vocabulary-focused lessons, often retreating from them by paging through picture-book adaptations of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. In response to his interest, his teachers developed a learning tool—a Harry Potter dictionary—intended to push Joe to learn new words while honoring his main area of expertise and interest. New concepts and words were connected to material lie had already mastered from watching Harry Potter movies and enjoying the books. For instance, the entry for the word aloft included a drawing of Harry Potter playing Quidditch and flying through the air on his stick. The entry for terrified showed Harry encountering ghouls in the hallways of Hogwarts.

Another teacher we know created a series of instructional materials related to an abiding interest in horses that Trey, a student with autism, demonstrated in her class. She cut out pictures of horses pulling carts and people riding on horses for a social studies text on transportation, a required topic in the curriculum. She also made reading materials by incorporating target vocabulary into a short story about horses. Trey's interest in the adapted materials enabled him to stay with the class during lessons because he could flip through his books if he needed to fidget. He was also able to learn new vocabulary and concepts by reading and rereading the horse books with teachers and classmates.

For us, the instructional decisions made by Joe's and Trey's teachers reflect several of the key principles proposed by Blachowicz and Fisher (2000) in their review of research on vocabulary, most notably, that word learning can be personalized—tailored to address particular students' needs and interests—as well as maximized through multiple exposures to the target words. Both boys were highly motivated to read and reread their teacher-made materials, and the informal talk and viewing of images that accompanied those readings served to reinforce the words' meanings even further. We recommend this kind of multisensory approach for vocabulary learning just as we did earlier for instruction focused on phonics and phonemic awareness.

Differentiating Writing Materials

Still another way to encourage fluency is to use a wide range of materials and provide choice in how the learner will complete writing tasks. Teddy, a young man with Asperger syndrome, for instance, was often much more willing to write longer passages when he could use markers or colorful paper. Another student we know did higher quality work when he wrote on the chalkboard instead of on notepaper or the computer. Still another learner was motivated to write when his teacher honored his passion for kitchen utensils by attaching his pencils to small cooking ladles and allowing him to, in essence, write with a spoon.

June Downing described her student Joannie, who profited from both choice activities and from using different materials during writing exercises. This learner, who, previous to being included in a first-grade classroom had been in a room for students labeled as "trainable mentally retarded," made gains when she was given materials that allowed her to construct text and participate in typical classroom activities:

When asked to write in her journal, she was given choices of pictures from which to select. She tended to select topics around her classmates, in particular, her friend, Monica. Initially starring with pictures and then fading to word cards alone, Joannie was able to complete sentences by using index cards placed sequentially in separate boxes following the sentence pattern of "Monica is ." Joannie seemed to take great delight in choosing the adjectives (a choice of three) to complete the sentence, which were then read to her and written in her journal. She held a pencil but used the word cards to put in the sequential boxes form her sentences about her friend. (2005, p. 68)

Assistive technology should also be considered for each learner with autism. Students may need low-tech options such as a slant board or pencil grip or high-tech options such as software programs and augmentative communication devices. Common writing supports for students with autism include word prediction software, voice recognition software, "talking" dictionaries, teacher-created letter or picture boards, alternative keyboards (with larger keys that can be arranged to suit the learner's needs or preferences), and even typewriters (a favorite for students who are sensory learners and like to "feel" what they are writing).

Concluding Thoughts (on Literacy Learning for Students with Significant Disabilities)

Think of a student with significant disabilities you know. Maybe he's the one who flaps his fingers in front of his face or dances alone in a corner or spends hours on end gazing out the window at passing trains. We want to be clear that, yes, we mean that learner too when we implore teachers to have higher expectations and to provide meaningful and varied educational experiences for all students in inclusive settings.

It is our belief that the next several decades of research on autism will illuminate just how much students with significant autism know, can understand, and have been trying to show us. For this reason, we hope that we have offered encouragement in this chapter to try something new and to be creative as we approach an area of curriculum and instruction that is largely unexplored. To this end, it might be inspiring to learn of a commitment Anne Sullivan made regarding her pupil with significant disabilities. Though she had little in the way of precedent, could not possibly know what to expect of her pupil, and, incidentally, was only 21 years old, Sullivan moved forward in her work with Helen Keller with both conviction and remarkable expectations. Certainly as we are waiting to learn more about significant disability, technology, communication difficulties, and autism itself, it will serve our students well if we hold high expectations while employing practices that might bring the most promising results, Sullivan herself lived and taught by this philosophy:

I shall assume that she has the normal child's capacity of assimilation and imitation. I shall use complete sentences in talking to her, and fill out the meaning with gestures and her descriptive signs when necessity requires it, but I shall not try to keep her mind fixed on any one thing. I shall do all I can to interest and stimulate it, and wait for results. (Lash, 1980, p. 56).

Clip Art Courtesy of Lakeshore Learning

Book Excerpts Copyright © 2008. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. Reprinted with Permission.