JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE
Michelle A. Towles
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michelle A. Towles.
Email: [email protected]
Reading Comprehension with Students on the Autism Spectrum: Journal Critique
1
The topic of the journal article mentioned above is how teachers are able to teach Reading
Comprehension to students that are on the Autism spectrum and the discrepancies of how some
teachers want to teach along with the recommended practices that are suggested from research-based
findings. The article states “Students with autism spectrum disorder have been found to experience
difficulty in reading comprehension despite intact decoding and word recognition” [ CITATION Amy19 \l
1033 ]. The purpose and primary goal of this article is to conduct a study to gather thoughts and
experiences of teachers along with comparing the preparedness of the teachers to use the effective
instructional practices emerging from the research to teacher-reported effectiveness in the classroom.
This is because teachers have reported lack of access to research-based practices to help with individual
instruction for students who are on the autism spectrum [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ]. The author of this
study brought forth some great insight as to why it is so important for teachers to have the training and
access to needed materials in order to help students with Autism grow in their knowledge to succeed in
today’s society.
Main Ideas
Research and evidence has been found that shows students with Autism struggle with reading
comprehension for multiple different reasons. In order to have reading comprehension, most students
JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE2
Reading Comprehension with Students on the Autism Spectrum: Journal Critique
Article 1
Accardo, A.L., & Finnegan, E.G. (2019, January). Teaching reading comprehension to learners with
autism spectrum disorder: Discrepancies between teacher and research-recommended practices. Sage
Journals, 23(1), 236-246.
Topic
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have a great concept of phonemic awareness skills; however, research has found that there is a
correlation between phonemic awareness skills and becoming a successful reader that is not consistent
with students with Autism because of a deficit that these students usually have within their oral
language abilities. Impairments in oral language processing can impact the development of word
meaning for learners with Autism, and oral language seems to account for some of the variance in
reading comprehension development [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ].
The instruction a teacher gives in reading comprehension has a direct link to the student’s
outcome in learning. If a teacher does not have the ability or access to the needed materials, the
student’s learning outcome may not be good. The article tells us that the need to identify high-quality
research is not only federally mandated, but also essential to good teaching. It also talks about EBP’s,
which means evidence-based practice, and how they are considered the Gold Standard for instructional
practices [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ]. There are a few specific instructional practices that are deemed to
be “effective” for students with Autism. They are anaphoric cueing, compare and contrast diagrams,
cooperative learning, direct/indirect instruction, visual supports including graphic organizers, question
generation, read-alouds, reciprocal questioning, story structure maps/character event maps, systematic
prompting, and a multiple strategy approach [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ].
This study included 112 participants going across 23 states. These participants were teaching
within Pre-K through ages 18-21 and were from public, private, and charter schools. There were
inclusion criteria in order to participate in the study. Participants must be teachers of students with
Autism holding primary responsibility for daily instruction, including general education teachers, special
education teachers, reading specialists, and autism consultants [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ]. The study
showed that teachers reported their perception towards how they were prepared to use the 11
researched identified effective practices/strategies and the evidence-based practices emerging from
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literature. The way the study was done was the teacher/participant was given one question at a time.
For example: “In your experience what research-based instructional strategies stand out as those you
use effectively to teach reading comprehension to students with Autism?” They were then provided with
11 statements, one for each practice. The teachers had to choose from 1 (least understand) to 5 (very
strongly understand) for each statement to show their preparedness and readiness for that statement or
strategy [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ].
Conclusions
After the study was concluded, the findings showed that there is a discrepancy between teacher-
reported effective practices and those recommended by researchers [ CITATION Amy19 \l 1033 ]. The
study also found that teachers did not report all of the practices that were identified in the literature as
those they thought as effective for teaching reading comprehension to students with Autism in their
classrooms. It is suggested that while teachers may feel confident in their teaching ability to use effective
practices in their classrooms, they are either not using them, or they do not feel the investigated
instructional practices are as effective for students with Autism as they are for other students [ CITATION
Amy19 \l 1033 ].
Reflection
This article was very informative, and I really enjoyed reading it. I am a mother of a 12-year-old
boy with Mild Autism and ADHD, and I have personally seen him struggle with the reading
comprehension aspect; therefore, reading this article on how teachers feel about being prepared and
teaching really opened my eyes. I feel the article was very well written and the information was very
nicely put together and easy to understand. The results of the study really made me think. I am an
upcoming teacher and almost done with my degree and I know I will have students with struggles in my
classroom, whether it is autism or something else. Looking at the questions asked in the study, and the
JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE5
percentages within the answers was very thought provoking on what the teachers did in the classroom
to make them comfortable or not comfortable using that particular strategy in their classroom. I feel that
in the study, it would have been helpful for the teachers to explain during their answers why they were
either very comfortable or not comfortable with each strategy. This information would help the person
reading the article understand their answers or reasoning, and I feel it would help the creators of the
study get mor information on why some things work and some do not. One of the most important things
I feel I learned from reading this article and doing a critique is all the information about Autism, and the
different strategies and practices it mentioned. I personally did not realize there were so many different
practices that can be utilized or tried in a classroom teaching children with Autism. I used to homeschool
my son, and this article would have helped me greatly.
Article 2
Henry, A.R., & Solari, E.J., (2020, March 2). Targeting Oral Language and Listening Comprehension
Development for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A School-Based Pilot Study. Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders (50), 3763-3776.
Topic
The topic of this article is how to target oral language and listening comprehension development
for students with Autism. The article investigates how these two things can be integrated into an
intervention to help children with Autism learn. The article represents a study that provides preliminary
evidence of the interventions feasibility and effectiveness for intervening in language and early reading
skills for students with Autism[ CITATION Aly20 \l 1033 ]. Children with autism struggle with different
aspects of learning. This study investigated whether the implementation of an integrated language and
listening comprehension intervention would improve the oral language and listening comprehension
abilities of elementary students with Autism [ CITATION Aly20 \l 1033 ].
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Main Ideas
This article states that between 37% and 65% of students with Autism have marked disabilities
with reading comprehension [ CITATION Aly20 \l 1033 ]. This is a much higher percentage than typical
developing individuals. Teachers must remember that reading comprehension is a foundational skill that
is crucial for academic and vocational success. Research-based instructional practices to address these
difficulties are very needed in schools today. This would help teachers and students tremendously.
The study consisted of 43 children ranging in ages from 5-9. They were recruited from four
school sites within a large rural school district in Northern California. All students included in this study
were receiving special education services under the “Autism” classification and were enrolled in special
day classrooms for 50% or more of their day [ CITATION Aly20 \l 1033 ]. During the study students were
observed and tested on the following: IQ, Autism Symptomatology, Vocabulary, Narrative Recall,
Listening Comprehension, Fidelity, and Acceptability, Appropriateness, and Feasibility. The students
were split into two groups, control and experimental, then all students were tested individually.
Conclusions
The results for the study in this article were split into different categories: Oral Language,
Listening Comprehension, and Feasibility, Acceptability, and Appropriateness. Within all three
categories, there was a significant difference between the controlled environment, and the
experimental
environment being that experimental was a lot higher and more beneficial. The data indicated that this
particular curriculum was successful in improving several important contributors to reading
comprehension [ CITATION Aly20 \l 1033 ]. Intervening withing these categories helps students and
teachers tremendously.
Reflection
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The one thing this study did not include was observations of typical classroom instruction, or
additional interventions that the students may have already been receiving in school. This article was
very informational and gave me a lot of information that I plan to use in my future classroom. It also
helped me realize some helpful things I can use with my own son when helping him, as he has Autism.
This article was very different compared to the previous article I read and stated above. They both gave
great information I plan to save and use for the future.
JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE
References
Accardo, A. L., & Finnegan, E. G. (2019, January). Teaching reading comprehension to learners with
autism spectrum disorder: Discrepancies between teacher and research-recommended
practices. Sage Journals, 23(1), 236-246. doi:10.1177/1362361317730744
Henry, A. R., & Solari, E. J. (2020, March 2). Targeting Oral Language and Listening Comprehension
Development for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A School-Based Pilot Study. Journal
of Autism and Developmental Disorders(50), 3763-3776. doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04434-2
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