Teaching Higher Functioning Autistic Students to Read Using Teach Your Children to Read Well.

During the past two years a number of behavioral practitioners have begun using Teach Your Children to Read Well with clients who are diagnosed with autism. They have been reporting consistent success using our programs to teach these clients to read. To this point, Dr. Joel Hundert, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario has had the most experience with autism spectrum clients and our programs.

Dr. Hundert and his staff at the Behavior Institute, in Hamilton and Toronto, have noted that a high number of repetitions may be required in the early lessons as the student learns to learn the formats involved in the programs. They have also added several practice routines to the program specifically for their clients. Michael Fabrizio and Allison Moors are currently field-testing the program with some of their autistic clients in the Seattle area.We expect to have data on the results of these efforts in all three locations in the near future. If you are working with autistic spectrum clients who already have language skills, you may wish to consider our programs as a way to successfully teach them to read. Unless the client has reasonable language skills, we recommend that the focus be placed on teaching language skills using Siegfried Engelmann's Language for Learning series, a Direct Instruction language program published by McGraw-Hill.