Segment-Unit Reading Training for a Student With Autism

Abstract

Students with autism often have difficulty in reading and comprehending sentences, although they can read and comprehend shorter portions of sentences, such as words and segments. Previous studies have shown that repeated-reading training was an effective intervention, enabling such students to improve their reading skills, including accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Because previous repeated-reading training required students to read whole sentences, it was sometimes difficult for students with autism to read whole sentences and complete the reading intervention training. The present study compared 2 types of repeated-reading training, measuring the improvement in reading skills of a 13-year-old boy with autism. Each segment of the sentences was presented successively and sequentially during training. In the pre-test, the student first read whole sentences presented on a computer, after which he answered 5 questions about those sentences. Repeated-reading training then began. In whole-sentence reading training, the student read whole sentences that were presented on a computer. In segment-unit reading training, he read each segment as it was presented individually by the computer. After the training, the student took a post-test that was identical to the pre-test. The results indicated that although the student's reading time decreased after both types of training, his reading accuracy and comprehension improved only after segment-unit reading (raining. These results suggest that segment-unit reading training was more effective than repeated reading of whole sentences in improving the reading skills of this student with autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved). (journal abstract)