Engaging Children With Autism in Shared Book Reading

Abstract

Margot is a mother to three young children and is particularly invested in helping her children become strong readers. She makes an effort to read with her children daily, because she has been told by teachers and other professionals that reading with children is especially important in helping them develop reading skills. Sam, the youngest of her children, is a reluctant reader. He was diagnosed with autism last year when he was three years old, and he engages in challenging behaviors that make it difficult to read with him. Sam’s siblings show a natural affinity toward books and are excited to read with Margot, but when she includes Sam in book readings, he loses interest quickly and engages in behaviors that are distracting to his siblings, such as poking them or yawning loudly. When Margot asks if he would like to read a book just with her, he usually ignores her and continues playing with his trains (his favorite activity). Forceful attempts to make him read books result in screaming tantrums. Because of his challenging behaviors, Margot has stopped trying to get Sam to read with her or his siblings, but she worries that he will have difficulties reading in the future. The presence of a developmental disability has been associated with failures in learning to read (Landgren, Kjellman, & Gillberg, 2003). Given that children with disabilities are at higher risk for reading difficulties, it is especially important that they receive repeated opportunities to develop emergent literacy skills—particularly oral language, phonological awareness, and concepts about print—that can support later reading achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). A common early literacy practice valued by early childhood professionals and parents is reading aloud with children. Reading books with children gained popularity during the 1980s in large part, because early childhood policy makers publicized that reading aloud was an excellent, developmentally appropriate instructional practice (Bredekamp, 1986). The frequency of book reading at early ages has been related to children’s oral language ability and reading comprehension skills in elementary school (Wells, 1985). Reading aloud to children emerged as a key facet of family literacy programs and the central focus of several public library outreach efforts (e.g., the Carnegie Library’s Beginning to Read program, Reading is Fundamental, “