Research shows that promoting emergent literacy in autistic children has many benefits, and parents of these children often ask about how to support their child’s early reading success. As a professional, you may wonder if there are specific ways to tailor early literacy support this group of children. 

What we often see is that the areas of literacy where autistic children have the most difficulty often mirror the areas of communication where they may benefit from extra support. So when we promote early literacy in these children, there’s a dual benefit – we support the key literacy skills that predict academic success and we support their social communication.

If you work with autistic children who speak in sentences, you may find that they need extra support in the area of comprehension. They may be able to read words on a page, but may not fully grasp the meaning of the words. Or they may understand what is happening in the story, but have trouble understanding why it’s happening or why characters do or feel what they do. The Building Emergent Literacy e-Seminar considers the areas of literacy where autistic children need the most support, and offers evidence-based strategies to help them develop the early literacy skills that can positively impact all areas of their life. 

After completing this e-Seminar, you will be able to:

• Identify emergent literacy skills and describe the connection between language and literacy development.
• Relate the difficulties of autistic children with the development of both meaning- and code- related emergent literacy skills.
• Describe the current research that informs our knowledge of both meaning- and code- related emergent literacy skills in autistic children.
• Apply evidence-based practices that promote literacy development in autistic children in the home and in early childhood settings.