Performance of ASD verbal children and adolescents in reading and writing skills

The number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) attending regular classroom schools is increasing, therefore, more information about the learning process of children with this diagnosis is needed. The ASD cases are heterogeneous, and their manifestations can vary according to several factors; Moreover, evidence states that the reading and writing of ASD children are deficient when compared to the performance of typical children (Baixauli et al., 2021; Fernandes et al., 2015; Santos et al., 2024).. Although, there are few studies that analyze the performance of school-age children diagnosed with ASD verbal children with emphasis on reader and writer performance standards. The general objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of children diagnosed with ASD verbal children in decoding and coding tasks, providing a comparative analysis of performance with the control group. Thus, 60 children participated in this study (12 verbal children diagnosed with ASD and 48 in the control group). These were matched according to age, gender, and education. The data underwent statistical and inferential analysis. To analyze the effect of the studied variables, the Generalized Estimated Equations (GEE) model was used. Preliminary results show a significant reduction in the research group`s performance on the tasks evaluated, in addition to specific difficulties in decoding and encoding words, even in more verbal children. This study contributes mainly to a better understanding of reading and writing manifestations in individuals diagnosed with ASD verbal children, besides the possibility of rethinking speech therapy and pedagogical methodologies for assessment and intervention in children in this group with learning difficulties

References

Baixauli, I., Roselló, B., Berenguer, C., Téllez de Meneses, M., & Miranda, A. (2021). Reading and writing skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 646849. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646849

Fernandes, F. D. M., Amato, C. A. H., & Molini-Avejonas, D. R. (2015). Reading in autism spectrum disorders: A literature review. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 67(4), 169–177. https://doi.org/10.1159/000442086

Santos, M. F. P., Andrade, S. A. P., & Macedo, E. C. (2024). Impact of reading intervention on the phonological awareness of children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. CoDAS, 36(2), e20220336. https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-1782/2022202236