Home-based reading between mothers and their children with autism spectrum disorders

Previous research has examined home-based reading practices in families with typically developing children, however, little is known about these activities in families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study describes the naturalistic interactions of 11 mothers and their children (7.4-12.9 years of age) during home-based reading. We report on children's reading behaviours and mothers' responses to them, including the provision of print-based information (which emphasises error correction) versus contextual information (which emphasises reading for comprehension). We also investigated mothers' beliefs about the relative importance of these two types of information. Results revealed that mothers ranked the provision of print-based information as being more important than the provision of contextual information. Consistent with this, mothers demonstrated more print-based than contextual behaviours during their child's oral reading. These findings are comparable with those of previous studies that have examined home-based reading between mothers and typically developing children. It is hoped that this research will stimulate awareness amongst educators, clinicians and families of children with ASD about the role that parents play in their children's reading development and encourage additional research.