Building Meaning: Meta-analysis of Component Skills Supporting Reading Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum...

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology

Background:

• Reading comprehension is crucial for academic success.
• Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face reading comprehension challenges.
• While oral language deficits are often implicated, the role of word reading skills remains debated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the relative contributions of word reading and oral language skills to reading comprehension in children with ASD.
• To synthesize existing research through a meta-analysis.
• To inform targeted interventions for improving reading comprehension in ASD.

Main Methods:

• A meta-analysis was conducted on 26 studies of children with ASD (aged 6-18 years).
• Studies published up to May 2019 were identified through searches of ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Proquest Dissertation & Theses.
• Hunt-Schmidt Random Effects Models were used to analyze correlations between reading comprehension and component skills.

Main Results:

• Similar mean correlations were found between reading comprehension and word reading (M r = 0.65) and oral language (M r = 0.61).
• Both word reading and oral language skills demonstrated significant and comparable contributions to reading comprehension in children with ASD.
• These findings underscore the importance of both skill sets.

Conclusions:

• Word reading and oral language skills are essential and similarly important for reading comprehension in children with ASD.
• Assessment of both word reading and oral language is recommended to identify appropriate interventions.
• This research provides a foundation for further investigation into these mechanisms to support reading comprehension in ASD.