I’m a reading tutor and have a 13-year-old autistic student who can read well, but has a very hard time with vocabulary and comprehension. For example, he was able to start reading Holes out loud to me but we had to constantly stop because he didn’t understand what a word meant or was confused about the plot. We stopped without getting very far into the book. Now I’m looking for a chapter book to read with him that would be appropriate for his reading level (probably around 5th grade) but has a fairly straight-forward plot.
by Reasonable-Dirt-
2 Comments
Try mysteries like Encyclopedia Brown or Hardy Boys. Those are pretty straightforward from a language and theme standpoint. Mysteries will be good for teaching inference and helping your student train his brain to read between the lines and look for clues.
As far as vocabulary, the goal of reading instruction at the middle school level is partly about learning to understand the gist and use context clues to read fluently amid unfamiliar vocabulary. It’s common for students with autism and ADHD to get hung up on vocabulary (“I can’t read this if I don’t know the words!”) Try to empower your student to guess and move past vocabulary that’s not essential to understanding the meaning. New words that ARE essential to the meaning are good choices for previewing and teaching ahead of reading the section.
Does he read graphic novels and semi graphic novels.
Do you have the 13 story tree house series where you are, or is he reading beyond that? He might enjoy it anyway. My kiddo was able to read well but preferred to read at an easier level than their full capacity when reading for enjoyment.
Neil Gaimans stardust has been written in several different styles with varying levels of pictures.
Or maybe something that has been converted to a tv show/movie so he can watch that a few times first and then once he understands it he can read the book and there is a level of knowledge already there to support the reading. Like Harry Potter. Leave the subtitles on when you watch it. (I think most zoomers do this now anyway)
Reading on the kindle means you can just click on the word and it will explain it. I think it has to be configured, it’s not out of the box functionality.