Autistic child can’t read at 6 years old

[Sparkleshine21]

My autistic DD can’t read, she was 6 in December. She is far below KS1 level through not being able to focus in class due to sensory overload and having to take time
out of class due to this. I have just begun homeschooling her and she’s really reluctant to put any effort into learning to read, she just tells me she can’t do it and won’t do it. Any tips on how to get her better with her literacy?

I would start by looking at exactly what her needs are. Has she had SALT, OT, EP assessments? Does she have an EHCP?

I pushed for an EHCP at every SENCO meeting I had at school, firstly I was told there were children with greater needs at the school that hadn’t qualified, which I told them has no bearing on me wanting one for my daughter. They then eventually said they would look into it and start the process, a month later they were no further along with it and I went for Elective Home Ed. Still in contact with the school as my mum was headteacher at one point, have chased this up via email but no response as of yet.

You can apply for an EHCNA yourself. IPSEA have a model letter.

If you have deregistered the school won’t now apply for you. By EHE you may well have made things harder for yourself. Parents often find it easier to get support when on a school’s roll even if their DC can’t attend. Crudely you are someone’s problem, whereas when you EHE it is too easy for professionals to sweep DC’s needs under the carpet. By EHE the LA will say you are making suitable alternative arrangements thereby relieving them of their duties. I suggest you email the Director of Children’s Services informing them you are no longer EHE and they need to arrange suitable full time education for DD.

@JustKeepBuilding she really struggles with the busy school environment and sensory overload, which is part of the reason I am EHE, to give her time to learn at her own pace, so I’m not keen on the idea of shoving her back into the mainstream school system. Just looking for tips on improving her literacy at home!

I didn’t suggest DD attends mainstream, or even school at all!

Ensuring DD has all her needs identified and the correct support for her needs will help her literacy.

My autistic son couldn't read at 6 either. He is extremely dyspraxic and it has taken him years to be able to track the text and he struggles with working memory also. He is now 9 and still on year 1 books (Ort band 6). (He is in an Sen school). We have tried loads of different reading schemes, behavioural optometry (has helped a bit with the tracking but very ££) and in the end just keeping repeating the basics and keeping trying is the only thing that has worked.

@daffodil56 thankyou, your comment is really helpful. I had a home tutor come to assess her today and she became so stressed when she kept pushing a sheet of phonics practice with her that she had a meltdown and tutor had to leave. The tutor said she teaches part time in mainstream
school and an autistic child in her year five class is ks1 level reading also. Would you suggest that the softly softly gradual approach to reading and writing is best?

I don't know, they are all different really. Certainly keeping a gentle approach so they don't grow to hate reading would be a consideration. We have always tried to have lots of picture and audio books etc available to keep vocab up and to read to ds whenever we can, even though he prefers facts to stories.

The weird thing is, she loves being read to and we do it daily, her vocabulary is huge and she uses advanced vocabulary correctly in sentences, she just doesn’t like reading! I’m so confused with it all

The one thing mine has always been age appropriate on is vocabulary, even though his reading is rubbish. It's a spatial and working memory thing for him really.

SEND teacher here. So I have lots of asd children come through my class. Honestly over 50% learnt to read through sight reading not phonics. I teach phonics and it supports the readers sometimes but I always advise parents in your situation to label everything in the house. Literally stick a label saying 'door' on the door, 'toilet', 'bin'. I wouldn't even mention it unless she does. Just tell her the word if she asks. If she shows interest sound it out as you say it, point out the shape of the word. If she's showing no interest and saying cant/ won't I would back off for a few days/weeks and do the other homeschooling but not phonics/reading. Let her get familiar with the look of the words and she might just suprise you. If she is interested in the future used word cards if the objects around the house to make a sentence (add in the little words 'a' 'he' 'she' 'i' etc, start putting these words onto a word wall in her room) no pressure sounds like the key. Good luck!

@Bronzeisthecolour thankyou so much for your advice! I will do this today.

My autistic child struggled with reading. Trying to get to read the school book was a disaster. Got a dyslexia diagnosis last year. We have had progression although still years delayed. What worked for us we're words on paper which child got to stick around home with support. We gave up on books and child tried signage on roads. Simple single sentence where child could draw a picture/colour picture accordingly to sentence.

Child can read but books are too overwhelming for them.

@daffodil56 could I possibly DM you about the behavioural optometry? I have a severely dyspraxic DD and have wondered about it but never chatted to anyone who has actually done it.

Yes, no problem

My 9yo is severely dyslexic and autistic and has an hour with a 1-1 tutor. She is doing something called alpha to omega with her (I think that's what it's called). She spent several weeks ensuring DD knew the order of the alphabet and has absolutely started from the beginning.

My 13 year old son with asd can read at a year 1/2 level. I taught him to read but he wouldnt do phonics or official reading books. I googled 'real books' and there were suggestions of normal books at each reading level which i would read to him. Then next time, id do things like come over all tired so could he just do that word whilst i closed my eye briefly. Or i would get him to read a singpost because it was so low down I couldnt see it. He quite liked a treasure hunt with very simply worded clues too.

Never thought of this but tomorrow I am labelling the house - thank you for tip