Triveni Goswami Vernal
Registered Special Educator (CRR A64010)

All parents desire that their child can read and write, at some point in life. While the previous two blogs focused on pre-writing skills and developmental stages that are important for developing writing skills, today’s blog will focus on one approach that is often used for individuals on the Autism Spectrum, to teach Reading. It is the Whole Word Sight Reading approach that focuses on the strength of Visual Memory in individuals with Autism.

WHOLE WORD SIGHT READING APPROACH: WHAT IS IT?
In Whole Word Sight Reading approach, the focus is on Visual Memory, whereby the individual memorizes the entire word as a whole, instead of breaking the word into sounds (phonics) and putting them together, to make words.
An article, “Literacy—A Skill for Life for Autistic Individuals”, by Maureen Bennie (https://autismawarenesscentre.com/literacy-a-skill-for-life-for-individuals-with-asd/) cites information that explains how individuals on the Autism spectrum may have challenges with the acquisition of reading skills through phonemic awareness due to a chromosomal irregularity. 
According to the article, “This difficulty may have a genetic origin found on the irregularities of chromosome 1, 6, 7 and 15. Here is what those chromosomes are responsible for:
• Chromosome 1 – phonemic decoding and phonics
• Chromosome 6 – phonemic awareness
• Chromosome 7 – oromotor skills (initiating and coordinating movements of the mouth)
• Chromosome 15 – cognition and motor skills; responsible for single word segmentation.”
Keeping this genetic predisposition in mind, the Whole Word Sight Reading approach is a good alternative.

SO, HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT IT?
Sight words are words that occur frequently that an individual would encounter on a day-to-day basis. It is a high frequency word. There are several sight word lists that are easily available, such as Dolch Sight Words (it contains 220 sight words and 95 high frequency nouns) and Fry Sight Words (it contains 10 levels of sight words with groups of 25 sight words on the basis of their difficulty and usage).

But for individuals on the Autism Spectrum, it is recommended that the Sight words that are introduced, are those from their immediate environment that they are most familiar with.

1) To begin, one can create a book with images and words of things that are highly motivating for the child (food items, or places that the child likes visiting, or things that they like playing with)—all of which are bound to catch their attention and are much sought after.

2) To create the book, one can take actual wrappers of food items (biscuits, bread, sweets etc) and cut them to a decent size and stick them on a blank page. Or collect images online, and copy/paste on a word document. Beneath each image, one has to write the name of the item or if it is a place to visit (like mall/park), in Black text with the letters being in lowercase. This format is taken to mimic the print that is seen everywhere in the environment (books, magazines, billboards etc). Then take print outs and stick the images with the text below.

3) Once its is ready, the individual can be asked to Point to an image, when instructed to do so. This is basic Identification.

4) One can create several copies of the image + word (separately on a card, like a flash card) and the word on its own (on another flash card).

5) Then one can pair a word card with the Image and word (For example, match KitKat (word card) with the image of the KitKat wrapper with the word below it). That is Matching.

6) Once the child is able to do that, then one can move to word card to word card pairing. For example, match word card KitKat with word card KitKat.

So, the teaching of a word moves from a concrete concept (word card to image and word card) to abstract (word card to word card).

Once, the child has developed fluency for these words, one can create another book with words from the child’s immediate environment (home) and school (if the child goes to it). This can include words regarding utensils used (plate, glass, spoon, tiffin box etc), furniture (table, chair, cupboard, bed etc), clothing (pant, shirt, dress, shoes, socks etc), electronics (TV, radio, computer/laptop, mobile phone, charger) etc.

The same format can be used to place the Image of the item with the word below it. Then teach the child Identification and Matching (moving from concrete to abstract).

And once the child is able to identify and match the word to the word, one can introduce the concept of Sorting.  One can instruct the child to sort all furniture together, or all food items together, or utensils together. One can keep expanding the categories to teach sight reading from one’s environment –vegetables, fruits, food that is hot, food that is cold, food that is sour/sweet/spicy/bitter, utensils made from plastic/steel etc

“Household Vocabulary”
Source of image: https://theautismhelper.com/functional-sight-words/

In my next blog, I will explore another approach to teach Reading to individuals on the Autism Spectrum.

REFERENCES:
Functional Academics for Students with Mental Retardation: A Guide for Teachers, Vijayalakshmi Myreddi and Jayanthi Narayan, 1998, NIMH (now NIEPID)

Literacy Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sonja Hall, 2023, Concordia University, St.Paul
Accessed from the website https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1087&context=teacher-education_masters

Literacy—A Skill for Life for Autistic Individuals, by Maureen Bennie, 2020 
Accessed from the website https://autismawarenesscentre.com/literacy-a-skill-for-life-for-individuals-with-asd/

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Author Triveni Goswami Vernal

Triveni Goswami Vernal is an Autism advocate, registered Special Educator (CRR A64010) and an Independent Researcher. Her areas of interest include Autism, Disability Rights, Gender, Art and Northeast studies. She is a mum to an 12 year old on the Autism Spectrum.

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Artwork- Wildflowers,
Artist- Kabir Vernal
Acrylic Painting on Canvas,
8 x 10 inches