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Published on: July 31, 2017
The home literacy environment of school-age autistic children with high support needs
Marleen F Westerveld1, Stephanie A Malone2, Sally Clendon3
1Griffith Institute for Educational Research, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University, Southport, Queensland, Australia.
Background:
As a group, autistic children with high support needs (with adaptive functioning in the range of an intellectual disability) are at risk of significant literacy difficulties. We investigated the parent-reported home literacy environment of this group of children.
Method:
Sixty-two parents of autistic children (4.5 to 18.25 years) attending an autism-specific school completed a home literacy survey reporting on their child's: (1) alphabet knowledge, (2) interest in reading, (3) activities/interactions around books, (4) reading ability, and (5) writing ability.
Results:
We found significant positive correlations between parent-reported child interest in reading and literacy-related interactions and skills, but not with child age. Children using spoken words to communicate obtained significantly greater scores on four home-literacy subscales, but not on reading interest.
Conclusions:
A better understanding of the home literacy activities of autistic children with high-support needs is needed to inform educational practices aimed at promoting literacy development in this vulnerable population.
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