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Updated: Sep 7, 2025

A Familiarization Protocol Facilitates the Participation of Children with ASD in Electrophysiological Research
Published on: July 31, 2017
Behavioral and neurobiological evidence for the effects of reading interventions on autistic children: A systematic
Kelly L Coburn1, McKayla R Kurtz1, Daphne Rivera1
1Department of Psychology, Center for Innovative Research in Autism, The University of Alabama, 348 Gordon Palmer Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Abstract:
This study systematically reviewed the literature on reading interventions for autistic children. Peer-reviewed articles that reported behavioral and/or neurobiological effects of reading intervention were identified in five online databases. After screening, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. These studies focus on interventions targeted towards improving specific reading skills: comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and phonological awareness. Studied interventions included interactive and shared reading, visualization strategies, vocabulary and main idea instruction, video modeling, and interventions supported by tablet-based technology. Overall, the studies identified in this review reported improvements to each of the targeted reading skills and changes to neural activation and connectivity. In addition, changes at the brain level were associated with improvements in reading. Specifically, frontal, temporal, and occipital regions associated with visual and language processing showed increased activation and functional connectivity following intervention. This review provides important insights into the landscape of reading intervention studies in autism and into the neurobiological underpinnings of reading skills and how interventions affect those processes.
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