Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review
A growing body of research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of reading and learning difficulties. However, there is mixed evidence on their weaknesses in different reading components, and little is known about how reading skills characterize in ASD. Thereby, the...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930275/full |
| _version_ | 1828396814768799744 |
|---|---|
| author | Ana Paula Vale Carina Fernandes Susana Cardoso |
| author_facet | Ana Paula Vale Carina Fernandes Susana Cardoso |
| author_sort | Ana Paula Vale |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A growing body of research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of reading and learning difficulties. However, there is mixed evidence on their weaknesses in different reading components, and little is known about how reading skills characterize in ASD. Thereby, the current study aimed to systematically review the research investigating this function in children with ASD. To this purpose, we reviewed 24 studies that compared (1) children with ASD and children with typical development (TD) in word and nonword reading performance, (2) children with ASD and normative data of word and nonword reading tests, and (3) the results obtained by children with ASD in word and nonword reading tests. Most of the comparisons (62%) contrasting the reading performance of children with ASD and children with TD did not find significant differences between groups in both word and nonword reading. However, all the comparisons that reported standardized results showed that children with ASD had scores that fell within population norms. Regarding the third comparison of interest, about 54% of the studies presented data for both word and nonword reading, but only one study tested the difference between them and showed that children with ASD had higher levels of word than of nonword reading. Despite these results, the heterogeneous and small samples do not allow to draw sound conclusions regarding the strategies that children with ASD use to read words. As consequence, the nature of reading difficulties presented by children with ASD are still unknown, requiring future research conducted with larger and well-characterized samples of ASD and TD, using homogeneous specific tasks designed to assess word reading strategies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:37:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1d7b545c9edc405681450ac01c4ee23e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:37:51Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-1d7b545c9edc405681450ac01c4ee23e2022-12-22T01:55:56ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-07-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.930275930275Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic reviewAna Paula Vale0Carina Fernandes1Susana Cardoso2Dyslexia Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, School of Social and Human Sciences, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, PortugalLaboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, PortugalDyslexia Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, School of Social and Human Sciences, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, PortugalA growing body of research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of reading and learning difficulties. However, there is mixed evidence on their weaknesses in different reading components, and little is known about how reading skills characterize in ASD. Thereby, the current study aimed to systematically review the research investigating this function in children with ASD. To this purpose, we reviewed 24 studies that compared (1) children with ASD and children with typical development (TD) in word and nonword reading performance, (2) children with ASD and normative data of word and nonword reading tests, and (3) the results obtained by children with ASD in word and nonword reading tests. Most of the comparisons (62%) contrasting the reading performance of children with ASD and children with TD did not find significant differences between groups in both word and nonword reading. However, all the comparisons that reported standardized results showed that children with ASD had scores that fell within population norms. Regarding the third comparison of interest, about 54% of the studies presented data for both word and nonword reading, but only one study tested the difference between them and showed that children with ASD had higher levels of word than of nonword reading. Despite these results, the heterogeneous and small samples do not allow to draw sound conclusions regarding the strategies that children with ASD use to read words. As consequence, the nature of reading difficulties presented by children with ASD are still unknown, requiring future research conducted with larger and well-characterized samples of ASD and TD, using homogeneous specific tasks designed to assess word reading strategies.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930275/fullautismword reading strategiesdecodingword recognitionmethodological features |
| spellingShingle | Ana Paula Vale Carina Fernandes Susana Cardoso Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review Frontiers in Psychology autism word reading strategies decoding word recognition methodological features |
| title | Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review |
| title_full | Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review |
| title_fullStr | Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review |
| title_short | Word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review |
| title_sort | word reading skills in autism spectrum disorder a systematic review |
| topic | autism word reading strategies decoding word recognition methodological features |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930275/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT anapaulavale wordreadingskillsinautismspectrumdisorderasystematicreview AT carinafernandes wordreadingskillsinautismspectrumdisorderasystematicreview AT susanacardoso wordreadingskillsinautismspectrumdisorderasystematicreview |