Reading strategies among students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their impact on comprehension

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often encounter challenges in acquiring language and literacy skills, especially learning to read, due to their unique cognitive and linguistic development. However, they also possess unique characteristics that set them apart from their peers, such as strong memory retention and creative talents in certain areas. Given these characteristics, the study of their reading acquisition processes is of great importance, especially to identify the learning strategies employed by students with ASD and to assess the extent to which these strategies influence their comprehension of written texts. This study adopts a qualitative field research approach and was conducted with seven Emirati students between the ages of 13 and 15. Teachers followed a direct instruction approach divided into three key stages: pre-reading, during reading and post-reading. In the pre-reading stage, the teaching approach involved using flashcards, puzzle-solving, and collecting and forming words. In the reading stage, the approach consisted of explaining difficult terms, using models of educational stories, and practicing the phonetic spelling of consonants and vowels. In the post-reading stage, the approach was divided into highlighting difficult terms, posing questions, and extracting explicit and implicit meanings. Following these observations, the students were interviewed, and data was collected using reading passages with comprehension questions. The findings revealed that students employed a variety of reading strategies, including making mental associations, using visual and auditory cues, thorough review and practice, applying memory and repetition strategies, processing and transferring information, applying analytical and inferential thinking, and coordinating cognitive input and output strategies. In addition, they have shown that they use intelligent guessing and compensatory strategies to overcome difficulties. Data analysis was conducted in accordance with Oxford’s (1996) framework for language learning strategies, which categorizes strategies into three direct types: mnemonic, cognitive and compensatory. The results indicated that both visual integration and interactive sensory integration had a positive impact on students' reading comprehension. Students tended to replicate their teachers’ teaching methods and adapt them to their own learning processes, albeit with individual variations. Based on these findings, the study recommends emphasizing the role of the teacher in promoting reading acquisition, as their teaching strategies have a significant impact on students’ reading strategies. In addition, the study emphasizes the importance of using visual and interactive sensory integration techniques to improve students’ reading comprehension and overall learning experience.

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