Improving Reading Comprehension among Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how reading teachers in southern urban schools described their use of prior knowledge and text clues in instructing high functioning ASD students in their use of inferencing to improve their reading comprehension. There were three research questions used in this study: RQ1: How do school-based reading teachers describe the instruction of students with high functioning ASD to combine text clues with prior knowledge to make inferences to improve their reading comprehension? RQ2: How do school-based reading teachers describe the instruction of students with high functioning ASD to use text clues to help improve their reading comprehension skills? RQ3: How do school-based reading teachers describe the instruction of students with high functioning ASD to use prior knowledge to help improve their reading comprehension skills? Semi-structured interviews, and two small focus groups data sources were used. The results indicated that teachers described using visuals and questioning to be effective means of maintaining student attention while teaching students to ASD to make inferences. Teachers found that there was a lack of support within their schools with regards to their development in effectively teaching reading comprehension skills to students with ASD. Teachers valued building relationships with students and families and focusing on ways to keep their ASD students engaged to improve their success rate. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]