How Reading Helps Autistic Children

Reading is very important in the development of children.Reading helps autistic children develop mentally and grow in some areas of readings they struggle in.You can offer support for autism by helping autistic children read.A way reading helps autistic children is that it allows them to develop their special interests.Autistic children usually have special interests to which they commit a lot of their time.Reading enables children to learn about their special interests.Reading also helps autistic children to learn about social interactions.Autistic children usually struggle with reading comprehension and other parts of the reading that require social knowledge.Through reading, autistic children can learn about social interactions and also apply these skills in person.Cognitive development is one of the essential areas of childhood development.Children benefit enormously in the later years from the stimulation of their cognitive development in their childhood.Reading helps autistic children boost their cognitive development.Find out how reading helps autistic children below:

It Boosts Their Cognitive Development

Cognitive development broadly refers to how children think, gain knowledge, and problem-solving.Reading is a great way for a child to learn to think and understand things.It is very important in the cognitive development of an autistic childCognitive development includes a wide range of skills that involve gaining knowledge.These include memory skills, concentration skills, information processing, and other skills.Autistic children that read also develop these skills.Reading also allows autistic children to gain a wide range of topics.Children that are readers are likely to have been exposed to various mathematical concepts such as numbers, colors, shapes, and sizes.They might also have been exposed to the basics of science.Better cognitive development in childhood will offer an advantage over other children.Autistic children sometimes have weaknesses in some subjects.Reading helps autistic children develop their cognitive skills.

It Helps Them Develop New Interests

Autistic children typically have intense passions and special interests in some subjects.This could be a train, an animal, a computer, art, or anything.These hobbies are generally referred to as special interests.Children with autism typically struggle with some aspects of reading like reading comprehension.In some cases, there are alternative means of learning about their special interests such as videos or pictures.However, reading is the most available source of learning.This means that an autistic child might have to read a book or some article to be able to learn more about their special interests.For instance, an autistic kid might read about sharks to develop an interest in sharks.Reading helps autistic children to develop their special interests.However, autistic children are still very likely going to struggle with reading.They might have to develop their reading habits but begin by reading books with pictures and guides.

It Helps Them Learn About Social Interactions

All children typically have their strengths and weaknesses.For autistic children, their weaknesses are usually related to reading comprehension, metaphors, idioms, misinterpreting complex texts, and other similar related topics.Most autistic people naturally struggle to relate to those topics when reading and in practice.Essentially, children with autism lack social interaction skills.Fortunately, reading provides an opportunity to gain and practice these social interactions.For instance, it is through reading that an autistic child might become familiar with a phrase such as "raining cats and dogs".Although an autistic child might struggle after reading the word, at a subsequent time, the autistic child is more likely to recognize the idiom.The same could apply to other social interactive skills like empathy.Reading makes it more likely that an autistic can learn to understand the dynamics of social interaction and apply them practically.It will take conscious effort to select books that develop social interaction skills.Reading might also be difficult for an autistic child to understand by themselves.However, reading helps autistic children to learn about social interactions.

It Prepares Them for Academic Success

In most schools, all children are taught, tested, and scored together.However, the school systems suit neurotypical children more than autistic children.Reading is an excellent way to prepare an autistic child for academic success.Autistic children usually struggle with reading comprehension, writing skills, and similar topics.Reading can assist an autistic child in compensating for some of the weaknesses in these skills.Essentially, gaining a headstart in their academics by reading.Some autistic children struggle to learn in classrooms.This could be due to some form of sensory overload.Reading can easily be done alone and might be more suited for these autistic children.Another area where autistic children can benefit from reading is in that it allows them to discover their skills.An autistic child can find a topic that interests them.Fundamentally, reading helps autistic children compete in terms of academic success against other students.

It Helps Them Build Language Skills

One of the best ways to learn a language is by reading books.Reading books with repetition and rhyming can help engage a child and keep them focused on a language.Reading also exposes children to new words, expanding their vocabulary.Children with autism typically struggle with reading comprehension so it might be difficult for an autistic child to develop their language skills.However, with the aid of visual aids, colors, and pictures autistic children can get interested in reading.When an autistic child is drawn to reading, then they can develop their language skills and understanding.An important step here is to select specific books that will interest an autistic child.Books with images and colorful illustrations are a good choice.With the aid of the image, an autistic child can also read and understand books.For instance, from reading, an autistic child might be able to learn the word tractor because the word is together with the picture.This way reading helps autistic children to develop their language skills.

Conclusion

Reading is an integral part of the development of every child. A great way to provide support for autism is to read to autistic children.Reading helps autistic children in various ways, such as boosting cognitive development, developing special interests, preparing for academic success, learning social interactions, and building language.

Resources

https://learnbehavioral.com/blog/how-books-can-help-kids-with-autism-build-language

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/guided-reading-how-can-it-benefit-autistic-pupils#:~:text=Guided%20reading%20provides%20the%20children,lives%20of%20children%20with%20ASD.

https://readingeggs.co.za/articles/2018/04/26/autism-and-learning-to-read/

https://www.readandspell.com/autism-and-reading-comprehension

https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/why-is-reading-important-for-children/