Emergent literacy skills for five kindergartners with autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study |
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| Authors: | Yael Kimhi Meital Achtarzad Gila Tubul‐Lavy |
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| Institution: | 1. Levinsky College of Education, Tel‐Aviv, Israel;2. Ono Academic College, Israel |
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| Abstract: | In typical development, emergent literacy skills predict successful reading abilities. Code‐related literacy skills may include letter knowledge, print concepts, early writing and early phonological awareness. Meaning‐related literacy skills may include lexical and grammatical ability, story retelling and comprehension. Children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) show, on the most part, poor reading comprehension abilities, yet up to date, research regarding emergent literacy skills in ASD is limited. We conducted a study to investigate a naturalistic, standards‐based national literacy programme, for five kindergartners with ASD, of age 5‐8 years in their kindergarten setting. We implemented an ASD‐adapted intervention as an intensive group treatment over 6 weeks, with a pretest–posttest design to examine emergent literacy gains. The children with ASD demonstrated gains in both code‐related and meaning‐related skills following intervention. The clinical and theoretical implications are discussed regarding the importance of an intensive structured literacy intervention for children with ASD before entering school. |
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| Keywords: | autism spectrum disorder literacy kindergarten naturalistic intervention |
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