Does your child with ASD always want you to read the same
books over and over again? If so,
go ahead and keep reading them.
You may think that this is a perseveration that you have to stop, but
the truth is that young children benefit from repeated readings of children’s
literature. Below are the benefits
of repeated readings:
1. Hearing a
book over and over again builds language skills for children with ASD. As
the children get more and more familiar with the book, the language becomes
easier and easier to understand.
The first time a book is read to a child with autism, the language may
be very difficult to understand.
But each time the book is read the child has to work less and less at
understanding the language. When
parents read aloud to their children, it positively impacts the child’s
language development. For children
with ASD it is very important for them to hear the way sentences are
formed. With this repeated
exposure to books, many kids begin to recite the books on their own using complete
sentences. This will enhance their
ability to use language to generate sentences in the future.
2. Hearing a
book over and over again builds reading comprehension skills for children with
ASD.
Because children with ASD have communication impairments, reading
comprehension can be extremely difficult.
By exposing the children to repeated readings, the children have many
opportunities to gradually increase their comprehension of the text. During repeated readings, you can begin
by asking your child simple questions such as, “What’s this?” or “Where is the
cat?” With each additional reading
of the book you can make your questions more complex moving to literal
questions that assess the child’s comprehension (ex. “What did they eat for
dinner?”), and then to inferential questions (ex. “Why was the boy crying?”).
3. If a
child wants to read the same book over and over again, this is showing pleasure
in engaging in literacy activities. Why would we want to stop this???? Reading should be enjoyable for
children. Go ahead and re-read the
books your child loves as often as you’d like!
4. Reading
the same books over and over again provides multiple opportunities to build
your child’s social interaction and communication skills. You
can use your child’s motivation to address specific objectives during the
shared book reading activities. You can work on having your child use words or
complete sentences to request books. You can teach your child to make a choice of which book to
read. You can teach your child to
make initiations during the book sharing.
You can teach your child to invite a sibling to join the book sharing
activity. This list goes on and
on. Anytime a child has a natural
motivation for something, it should be nurtured and utilized for improving
social, communication, and academic skills.
The question you may be asking is, “Does this mean I shouldn’t
try to expose my child to new books?”
The answer is: Of course not!
The only way a book can become a favorite is by initial and repeated exposure. If your child is resistant to new
books, give your child a choice from two or three new books trying to match the
choices to your child’s interests.
You should also read the new book between two favorites: Read a favorite
book, a new book, and then another favorite book. It may take several exposures for a new book to become a
favorite. You can line the books
up so the child can see that the favorite books will still be read. While not every book will become a
favorite, I use the same rule I use for new foods: Read the book seven times to
the child. If it’s not a favorite
by then, move on to another book.
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