Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Individuals with ASD

Many individuals on the autism spectrum with average to above-average intellectual ability have strong word decoding skills, allowing them to read fluently and accurately. However, they often face challenges in integrating and comprehending what they read¹. These difficulties with reading comprehension are linked to the neurocognitive characteristics of autism, and understanding these difficulties is essential for developing effective support strategies. Reading comprehension issues may go unidentified in individuals with ASD, as they can be masked by strong verbal abilities and/or proficient word-reading. The points below outline the nature of the reading comprehension difficulties experienced by individuals on the autism spectrum.

1. Detail-Focused Processing (Weak Central Coherence): A factor contributing to reading comprehension difficulties in ASD is a cognitive processing style known as Weak Central Coherence. This refers to a tendency to focus on details rather than integrating information into a larger, cohesive whole. As a result, while many individuals with ASD can understand individual sentences or facts, they can struggle to connect them into a coherent narrative or story. For example, they might read every sentence in a story accurately but be unable to comprehensively summarise the plot or explain the story’s main theme. Individuals with ASD may also miss causal links between events spread across different paragraphs or chapters.
2. Impaired Theory of Mind / Cognitive Empathy Difficulties: Difficulty with “Theory of Mind” or “Cognitive Empathy” – the ability to identify and interpret social cues, and the emotions and intentions of others – can lead to challenges in understanding characters’ motives, emotional states, or their use of pragmatic language in texts. For instance, a character’s sarcastic comment or subtle emotional reaction might be misinterpreted or entirely missed. Literature often requires readers to make inferences about interpersonal dynamics or imagine situations from someone else’s perspective, which can be challenging for individuals with ASD.
3. Challenges with Inference and Figurative Language: Inferencing – using contextual clues to understand information not explicitly stated – is another common area of difficulty. Figurative language such as metaphors, idioms, and sarcasm may be interpreted literally. A phrase like “he had a heavy heart” might be misunderstood by a child with ASD as referring to physical weight, rather than emotional sadness. Such expressions are frequent in novels, stories and poetry, sometimes leading to interpretative problems for individuals on the autism spectrum unless they are explicitly explained or taught.
4. Difficulties with Exam Questions: Comprehension challenges can cause problems during exams. Individuals with ASD may focus too intently on one specific part of a question, especially if it contains a detail that captures their interest, while neglecting other essential components of the exam question. Time management may also be an issue for individuals on the spectrum, as they may struggle to switch between the various components of a text, provide an analysis, and/or compose an appropriate or relevant answer within the set exam time-frame. These issues can explain why individuals with ASD often underperform in academic exams, not receiving grades commensurate with their intellectual ability.

Evidence-Based Support Strategies

There are certain strategies that can help enhance the reading comprehension of individuals with ASD. These can form part of support programmes in primary or secondary school, or Third Level education. Strategies can include some of the following (the appropriateness of which depends on the individual’s age, intellectual ability and word-reading skill):

1. Anaphoric Cue Reading is a strategy designed to help children identify and interpret words that refer back to something previously mentioned in a text – such as pronouns (“she,” “it,” “they”) or phrases like “the man” or “the event.” Readers with ASD often struggle to connect these references across sentences, which can impede their overall understanding. This approach involves explicitly teaching the student how to trace these linguistic links – asking, for example, “Who does ‘he’ refer to?” or “What is ‘it’ refering to here?” – so they can build a coherent mental model of the text. By strengthening this skill, students are better able to integrate information across passages and follow the flow of a narrative or story².
2. Visualising and Verbalising (V/V) is a structured intervention that helps students create mental images of the language they hear or read. Students are guided to form “gestalt” images – holistic mental pictures – of increasingly complex language, starting with single words and progressing to sentences, paragraphs, and entire pages. They then describe these images aloud, reinforcing comprehension through both verbal and visual channels. V/V has been shown to improve reading comprehension and support higher-order thinking in students with ASD by helping them move beyond isolated details to grasp the overall meaning of a text³.

Some other strategies include:

• Using visual organisers (e.g., story maps, flowcharts) to break down narratives, events, or arguments.
• Using guided discussions to explore themes, character emotions, and implied meanings in texts from various perspectives .
• Pre-teaching vocabulary and figurative language that will appear in a given text.

– The Autism Hub Team, 02/06/2025

References

1. Nation, K., Clarke, P., Wright, B., & Williams, C. (2006). Patterns of reading ability in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(7), 911-919. doi: 10.1007/s10803-006-0130-1
2. Whalon, K. J., Al Otaiba, S., & Delano, M. E. (2009). Evidence-based reading instruction for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Focus on Autism and other Developmental Disabilities, 24(1), 3-16. doi:10.1177/1088357608328515
3. Beckerson, M., Paisley, C., Murdaugh, D., Holm, H., Lemelman, A., Spencer, A. et al. (2024). Reading comprehension improvement in autism. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1292018. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1292018

Author: autismhub