Environmental Print-basedIntervention Of ASD Children’s Word Reading Ability

Integrated education for children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD)in regular schools has become the preferred form of placement worldwide and a major trend for future development.However,in the process of implementing integrated education,children with ASD face not only difficulties in living and social interaction,but also academic difficulties,especially in reading.Literacy is the foundation for reading and for children with ASD to enter general elementary school,and it is crucial for them to receive an equitable and quality integrated education.However,most existing studies have examined the importance and methods of literacy instruction for children with ASD from a theoretical perspective,but less from an empirical perspective on how to improve the literacy skills of children with ASD.Environmental words(e.g.,"KFC" on a billboard)have distinctive visual features(e.g.,icons,bright colors,and artistic fonts)that are more likely to attract children’s attention than ordinary words,and provide unique materials for teaching literacy to children with ASD.Discrete trial training and multisensory instruction are two representative teaching styles for teaching literacy to children with ASD.Therefore,in this study,three 7-8-year-old children with ASD were studied,and environmental text was used as materials to examine the intervention effects of different teaching styles(i.e.,turn-based instruction and multisensory instruction)on their literacy skills through a single-subject alternate treatment design to provide scientific guidance and empirical evidence for literacy instruction for children with ASD.The results of the study showed that(1)environmental text can be used as a material for literacy instruction for children with ASD,and there was an improvement in literacy skills of children with ASD after instruction.(2)Both discrete trial training and multisensory instruction can improve the literacy skills of children with ASD.(3)Multisensory instruction has a good maintenance effect on literacy intervention for children with ASD.(4)Multisensory instruction improved children with ASD’s interest in writing more than regular instruction.(5)Multisensory instruction and discrete trial training have good social validity for improving literacy skills of children with ASD.The results of this study suggest that environmental print-based literacy instruction promotes literacy skills of children with ASD and provides new ideas for enriching literacy instruction programs for children with ASD.