P. Kluth and L. Chandler-Olcott, A Land We Can Share: Teaching Literacy to Students with Autism

Excerpt

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) constitute a substantial percentage of children who qualify for special educational services and accommodations. Specifically, in 1995, ∼0.6% (or 25,487) of children aged 6–21 receiving educational services were served under the category of ASD, and this number increases every year (1.9% or 118,846, 2.3% or 141,142, and 2.7% or 166,424 in 2002–2004, respectively). Literacy and numeracy form two major domains of skills that need to be mastered during the school career of any child. Thus, given that the field realized long ago that children with ASD learn differently, one would expect to find a substantial amount of literature on how these two major groups of competencies can be taught so that they can be mastered successfully by children with ASD. Well, this expectation is wrong, unfortunately. The number of empirical (and theoretical, for what it is worth!) publications on ASD and literacy and numeracy acquisition is very limited. The field, at this stage, does not have a clear idea of how children with ASD learn to read and do math, and does not offer a repertoire of pedagogical approaches and techniques that can be used by educators who deal with children with ASD in their inclusive or special programs. …