Book-Reading Engagement in Children with Autism and Language Impairment: Associations with Emergent-Literacy Skills

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 1018 - 1030
• Main Authors: Bean, Allison F., Perez, Brenda I., Dynia, Jaclyn M., Kaderavek, Joan N., Justice, Laura M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Autism; Autistic children; Autistic Disorder - complications; Autistic Disorder - therapy; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Books and reading; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Classroom communication; Classrooms; Developmental disabilities; Early Intervention, Educational - methods; Emergent Literacy; Evaluation; Female; Humans; Language; Language Development Disorders - complications; Language Development Disorders - therapy; Language disorders; Language Impairments; Literacy; Literacy skills; Male; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Phonological Awareness; Predictor Variables; Preschool Children; Printed Materials; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Public Health; Reading; Shared reading; Skill development; Skills; Social interaction; Social interactions; Story Reading; Teachers; Teenagers; United States; Youth; United States; Shared book reading; Engagement; Autism; Language impairment; Literacy
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-04306-4

Emergent-literacy skills are frequently taught within social interactions in preschool classrooms such as shared book reading. Children with impaired language and/or social engagement may have difficulty accessing these learning opportunities. Therefore, we sought to investigate the relationship between book-reading orientation during a teacher-led shared book reading activity and emergent-literacy skill development across three groups of preschool children; autism ( n  = 22), developmental language disorder (DLD; n  = 23), and typical development (TD; n  = 58). The children with autism demonstrated less book-reading orientation than their DLD and TD peers. Book-reading orientation was a significant predictor of residualized gains in print-concept knowledge and phonological awareness. Thus, book-reading orientation appears to play a critical role in preschooler’s emergent-literacy skill development.