UC Riverside

Over the past several years, the need for identification and implementation of effective reading comprehension strategies for students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has come to the forefront of educational research, especially as the prevalence of this population continues to rise. It has been well documented, a large percentage of students with ASD demonstrate stronger decoding and word recognition skills over comprehension of text and are chronically disengaged from non-preferred, academic tasks. Additionally, this population demonstrates reduced ability to self-monitor their behavior in order to stay engaged with academic tasks, which impacts performance despite their learning potential. This alternating treatments with baseline phase, single-case design study investigated the effects of implementing a main-idea summarization reading intervention to the same reading intervention paired with a self-monitoring strategy. Outcomes of reading comprehension and engaged behavior were assessed daily for three students diagnosed with ASD in grades 5-8. Subjects were elected based upon their grade, eligibility of ASD, cognitive functioning (standard score >85), and reduced comprehension skills based upon IEP goals and/or standardized assessment. The participants will receive individual intervention 30 minutes per day, four days per week, for six consecutive weeks. After the baseline is established, the alternating treatment conditions will consist of reading intervention only and reading intervention plus a self-monitoring strategy on both reading comprehension and on-task engagement. Daily comprehension sheets and self-monitoring charts will be collected and visually inspected along with videotaped recordings of student engagement using the Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools (BOSS) software, which records percentage of intervals in which targeted behaviors occur. Social and fidelity of implementation will also be measured using exit surveys and daily checklists.