Observational Study on Teachers’ Approach in Teaching Children with Autism to Read

Abstract

Children with autism are characterized with unique cognitive and social emotional development which makes the process of teaching them to read to be difficult and complicated. In attending to the special needs and characteristics of children with autism, special education teachers should have necessary knowledge and techniques in teaching children with autism to read and taking their characteristics into consideration during the reading lesson. This research aims to examine the approaches used by teachers in teaching children with autism to read. A total of two special education teachers were willing to participate in the case study. A non-participant observation was carried out with the two respective teachers in different time frame in a selected autism centre. The findings were presented in different phases of the reading process which were carried out. There are no single theories which was used in teaching students to read in each phase. It involves the combination of various theories to help students to understand the content of the reading material. Based on the findings, the teachers used several theories in teaching reading to children with autism. These theories include reading theories (traditional, cognitive and metacognitive view of reading) and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory.

Keywords: Observational Study, children with autism, teaching approach, reading.