How do you know if your student is ready to learn reading? (Part 2)

How do you know if your student is ready to learn reading?

In my last blog (Teaching Reading To Children With Autism), I discussed some key aspects to consider when teaching reading to autistic children. Today, I will address the question, “How do I know if my child/student is ready for reading?”. You may be surprised when you hear my answer.

I introduce early literacy skills to children as young as three years of age in some cases!

Yes, I am enthusiastic about early intervention and I want to see my students succeed. But the actual reason is another one.

Autistic children are visual learners, and some children show interest in letters from a young age. Some children genuinely enjoy early reading activities, and sight-reading can be a strength.

The main reason why I introduce early literacy at a young age is that early reading activities can support speech and language development. So I teach reading to teach language.

While some children enjoy these activities from a young age, others are not interested until they are older, which is fine; I always follow their lead.

Autistic children may not learn to read following the same developmental patterns as other children. Here are some general guidelines for you to see if your child is ready for reading.

Your child can understand about 100 spoken words.

For children to read words, they need to understand those words. As a general rule, your child needs to understand about 100 words to start reading.

How many words a child can understand can be challenging to assess in some children because they may not sit down and point to objects and pictures on request for you to determine how many words they understand. 

If that is the case with your child, don´t ask them to point to pictures on request. Instead, say things like, do you want a biscuit? And do it out of context, and don´t point to the biscuits as you say this. If the child responds appropriately (walks to the kitchen where the biscuits are), you know they understood that word. Keep a notepad handy and make a list with those words that you think your child understands, and you will see how much vocabulary they have.

The child can match and select pictures.

For the child to learn to read, they need to identify similarities and differences between images.

Can your child match identical pictures? You can test this with inset puzzles with matching pictures on the board or play matching flashcards on the table. 

Use images that your child finds motivating to get your child´s attention. You can match pictures of superheroes, animals or whatever interests your child.

It is also essential that your child selects pictures on request; as with the reading instruction, they will need to listen and choose words.

The child is interested in letters.

Some children are fascinated with letters and numbers from a young age. You may see your child paying attention to letter games such as inset jigsaws with letters, alphabet games, and the alphabet song. 

Children interested in the alphabet enjoy early literacy activities, so why not get them started if this could be fun for them?

Some other children seem to enjoy looking at books and are eager for people to look at books with them. This can be another indicator that the child can benefit from early literacy activities.

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Over the years, I have met many children who didn´t tick all the boxes for reading readiness, but they still showed great interest in letters and words. So follow your instinct, and if you think that your child might benefit from early literacy activities, give it a try.

I often run a workshop on learning more about early literacy and how to introduce reading to autistic children.

If you would like to learn more about pre-reading and pre-writing activities for children with autism, stay tuned by subscribing to my newsletter (if you are not already a subscriber), or click on the following link for more information:

Teaching Language And Reading To Autistic Children.