Autism Spectrum Disorder Summary

Autism Spectrum Disorder allow students to struggle with reading comprehension and language development in the classroom. The article discusses about finding helpful reading skills for students to use to master and understand what the student is reading. Gately states, “often students have deficits in language and social cognition and difficulty interpreting and labeling emotions and incorporating or integrating each of these aspects of communication to gain meaning in social situations” (pg. 40). Combining these aspects in language arts can decrease the knowledge and lose a student when the student is not sure what they are reading about. The student is unable to make a connection while reading. The article mentions helpful strategies for

teachers to use when noticing students struggling while reading including; “priming background knowledge, picture walk, visuals, think-alouds, structure mapping, and social stories” (pg.41). All these different types of strategies could be incorporated in the classroom for different ways to help students understand the material and use gain knowledge.

My opinion on the article supports the material discussed because it is important to know how to help your students be successful in the classroom. During my Special Education Field Experience, I used some of the strategies listed during my language art lesson to help the students understand the story we were reading and use the knowledge to play a practice game in which they could play at home to review. Reading comprehension can be challenging for younger students especially those who read at a slower pace and need extra time to fully understand what they are reading. From personal experience, there were times in my elementary years I had to read the material a few times to completely understand what I was reading and what it was saying. It takes time to master reading comprehension but will the right strategies soon students will be on their way to become successful in the classroom.