Chapter 8 is on literacy and students with autism.
The following thoughts are from my experiences only, and don't necessarily reflect what happens elsewhere.
I'd say we do a good job in elementary school including every student in literacy development. We don't "count kids out" so quickly in the early years. We push for literacy in all grades, k-5. We get that being literate is more than just being able to sound out words and piece them together to form sentences and paragraphs.
As a reading teacher, I push for increases in fluency. I want my kids to be able to read with an ease that allows them to simply enjoy the exercise of reading. However, many of my students struggle significantly with reading fluency. Sometimes, we just need to take a break from the chore of reading and give our students the opportunity to enjoy a good story being told by a good storyteller. A good read aloud models the joy of reading for students, without the struggles of reading fluency getting in the way. It also helps us focus on the other aspect of reading- comprehension. Reading comprehension can be refined and practiced during a read aloud when students are not expected to read themselves. Practicing reading comprehension during a read aloud provides excellent opportunities for teachers to engage students in higher order thinking skills for texts that would otherwise be inaccessible.
Students on the Spectrum benefit from being read to because they are able to hear how voice inflections change as characters interact and respond to emotions. This is powerful for these students as many struggle to understand social interactions and emotions.
Half way done with the paragraph...more to come.
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