Need help teaching my son to read!

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Hello all,

I am looking for strategies to help teach my 8 year old son to read. He has started to express interest in books lately. Up until this point, he would throw a book across the room or tear the pages out. He is now imitating family members when they are reading. He chooses a book for bedtime, turns on his booklight and flips through the pages.
I feel that he may be recognizing some words, but is not able to read per say. He will not allow me to read to him and loses interest quickly when we work with letters. Perhaps there are some ideas floating around that I can try with him?

we have tried phonics books with preferred characters/themes
asdreading.com
board games
alphabet matching games
puzzles

I would be so greatful for any guidance!

That's sweet. Reading is so important for autistic children.

Both of my children started to read at age 2 (and my daughter was able to read cursive around 2.5?)

When my kids started to read, my daughter liked Dr. Seuss, and my son liked Bob Books. Comic books are good, too, my daughter liked Calvin and Hobbes. When they transitioned into books with more text, my daughter liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and my son like Captain Underpants. My son loves to read anything odd and funny: dinosaur walking in town, Mercy Watson (a pig that lives with people), Lizard stuck in honey, things like that.

For kids starting to read, you may want to draw pictures for them, by yourself. Drawing (and writing) for your children is so important, for several reasons: (a) it's the best tool to remove daily frustrations... anything bad that happens during the day, you can remove the bad feelings at bedtime... that's my secret to two happy kids, (b) your son gets to see your elbow motion, that'll motivate him to draw pictures and write, by himself. That is, it's not just about input, it's also about output. Once he is able to produce his own visual output, his brain development will be turbo-charged.

You can write and draw on paper. But you may want to consider two more possibilities: (a) a magenetic drawing board. TOMY MegaSketcher is the best I've found. Check on Amazon. (b) 4x6 blank index card that you can stuff into 4x6 mini photo albums. When my kids started to draw and write, we also got these big paper rolls (found them in IKEA) that you can tear and place on the floor, and they can draw and write to their hearts' content. Of course, any drawing (with writing) can also be taped on the wall.

To me, output cannot be separated from input. It's not just about reading: the ability to generate output (or, the opportunity to see output being generated) is a reinforcer to further reading. Sometimes I look at how my kids would pick up books on their own to read and giggle, and I just wish other autistic children could do the same thing. My life is so easy nowadays. My son (2nd grader) still talks kind of slowly, but he recently scored 94% in the English part of California's MAP test (Measures of Academic Progress). That's higher than most neurotypical kids. There is a good reason: written English was my son's first language.

If you have the ability to make animation video clips, that's also an excellent re-inforcer. Here is a story that my son made up in kindergarten.


My main point is: it's never just about reading or solely on the input side. It's also about connecting it all to the output side (initially on your side, and subsequently to your son's own output).

This is my son: reading, drawing, writing, giggling.


Oh well, I might as well post the video of how I made up stories and drew/wrote for my children when they were still non-verbal. The video was recreated later, but it shows how it all started... so you can understand why my children developed a fondness for reading and drawing. The point is, I planted a seed long time ago. And today, I am harvesting.

I am assuming that when he was unwilling to try to read that no one was able to test him for a reading disability. Although some kids with autism are hyperlexic and don't really need much if any phonics, some kids with autism also have reading disabilities. If he is dyslexic or something like that, you may need specialized techniques. I think if you have been trying phonics for a good while and it does not seem like it is sticking, I would get him tested so that my efforts could be optimized.

Aside from that the main thing I would do is make sure that the attempts are not frustrating for him and that he continues to enjoy being read to and reading. If he wants to make his own cartoons with you that actually would be great. You can even make it into a game where he does the pictures and he helps you do the captions and vis versa. We used to take turns with the panels, not b/c there were any reading issues but just for fun.

I may not be of much help. Some Aspies find it easier to learn reading by reading out loud. So you might have him read you a bedtime story.

When I was young I really liked reading comic books. That is where I started and then eventually I found the Hardy Boys series.

I didn't like to read until latter when I entered High School. I always associated reading with schoolwork and as a result it was less than enjoyable. But when I started to read, I progressed rather quickly.

Also it would be good to know if he has a reading disability, such as dyslexia. Does he have tendency to write his letter reversed?

Congrats! That's awesome that he shows interest.

Eikonabridge gives you great advice above on visuals and drawing. Borrow from him and use his videos and ideas -- I have with much success.

I used hundreds of sight word cards with pictures and we made our own cards and videos to help my son learn a lot of simple words and phrases. This is important when it comes to actually reading a book. All kids can get very frustrated if they try to read a book and they don't already know 80-90% of the words in the book.

My ASD and NT sons loved Gerald and Piggie books by Mo Willems. I would make word and picture cards that we studied for a few days before reading each book. If you are not comfortable with drawing, there are great youtube videos that will show you how to draw Gerald and Piggie.

The books are simple and it didn't take much to learn the few words needed. I read a book to them for a couple of days and then they each started reading a part (one son was Piggie and the other read Gerald). We then moved to each boy acting out their part as well as reading. I would then make a video of them acting/read and they would watch over and over again with much laughter. It was a great process for my ASD son to go from visual learning to reading and then to verbal communication even with facial expressions for the acting part while having a lot of fun.

You could try ABCMouse. I think going by their commercials that they would teach reading & letters in a way that's fun for the kids.

It is only idea. If he has something what interests him a lot, you can try with him google information about his interest, show him work with computer and how he can find what interests him. He can see, it is useful to learn to read.

I re-visited Gerald and Piggie, on YouTube. It's such a great collection. My son told me he liked the books. My wife borrowed those books from the library. Since we don't have the books at home, that's probably I have forgotten about them. For autistic children, Gerald and Piggie books are probably a lot better than Dr. Seuss or Bob Books.

You have pointed out the crucial thing: drawing pictures for children. Parents might be wondering why. Why bother drawing pictures for children, when so many books, video clips and movies are available out there. Why "build," when parents can simply "buy"? That's the point that most parents don't get. So most parents don't do it. And then, their children don't develop well.

Human brains develop because we build a model of the external world inside our brains. We are able to rationalize by "talking" to ourselves inside our brains. The problem is, autistic children are visual, and rely much less on the verbal channel. They don't "talk" inside their brains. They don't rely on the oral-aural channel. Neurotypical children develop deep thinking skills because they close their "outer feedback loop" early: they can hear and understand their own voice. Without closing the "outer feedback loop," children will not be able to develop deep thinking skills. Deep thinking skills are what make us different from animals. For autistic children, they close their outer feedback loop via the visual-manual channel instead. When you let your children read books, or watch video clips, they are passive receivers of information and are not able to see the process by which the books, drawings, or video clips are generated. That, is the missing link. Books and video clips only serve on the input side of the equation: they only work on the "visual" part, but are missing the "manual" part. That is why it is so crucial to draw and write for your children, get them acquainted with the process. Once these children are able to draw and write on their own, their brain development will be turbo-charged, and the parents' job will be mostly done.

Acting is another great reinforcer. Gosh, when they get into the mood, sometimes they'll repeat the same passage all day long. My son's latest fixation is to re-enact the twisted version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" with my daughter. My son will play the role of the "Orange" and my daughter will help him by playing the role of the "Pear." It's just amazing how they've managed to memorize all the lines in the video.