ASD son at MS Primary-activities to help with encouraging reading comprehension?

[dietstartstmoz]

Or am i just bonkers to even post this?
DS2 has HFA and is in reception at school. He can read quite well but like many Asd kids he struggles to discuss or interpret the words and pictures he has read. He sees SALT and has had some picture sequencing activities and can have an attempt at explaining the pictures but struggles but does ok
he is making 'steady progress' according to his teacher and her advice is to keep reading with him and discussing the story, Q & A etc. But are there any resources or formal activities we could use with Ds to help his comprehension. I understand there is not a magic answer but any smallsteps would help. We just want to help him where we can. Thanks

Would he be ready for Language for Thinking? It can be used at many levels, there are 50 real life typical children's scenarios and you start very simply using the first of 3 levels of questions about them. You could run all the way through it at one a week for a year and start them again a couple of years later at a higher level. My DS used it at school, and the DC I support uses them with me in Y4 - Y6. He's at the highest level now.

Thanks EllenJane, I will look into that.

we have been acting out stories and DS loves it
e.g.we made him a gingerbread man and used toy animals.
I have also got some of the old fashioned ladybird books from 1970s (still printed and on iPad). They are very literal e.g. Here is John. John is playing. Here is the zoo. I like the panda etc. Much more ASD accessible (no magic key, time machine fantasy element - so no imagination needed) and his reading and understanding is coming on well. I know he will need to move beyond this but for him this level of understanding is about right. He can just about understand real life let alone fantasy.
also make your own books with photos.
Ask school for key words he should know and then take photos of outings / activities etc and make them into a book.
Again DS loves these and gets them out again and again.

Ellen LFT is indeed a great programme but you need to carry out an assessment first to ascertain at what level the child needs to start. not simply a case of starting at the lowest level.

I would also recommend using it far more often than once a week.
To improve reading cxomprehension, practice needs to be much more intensive than this.

Thanks-all good ideas. Does LFT have an assessment framework we coul use to get a baseline assessment?
Moondog-would it be better to do these activities in short precision teaching sessions?

Yes, it's part of the book.
I find it slightly confusing however (and I have been reading manuals all of my professional life) so I have modified it slightly and made a more ABA friendly tracker sheet to go with it which I can send to anyone interested if you contact me privately. This gives you three opportunities to adminisiter same exercise and watch scores rise incrementally.
We also colour code the scores (all out of a possible 18 each time so 15-18 is green, 13-14 is orange and 1-12 is red.
I don't think you need to worry about trying to fit it into a PT format either.

Yes, indeed, moondog, but as diets DS is only 5 I was guessing that he might be assessed to start LFT at the lowest level. I was just trying to let her know that it works on many levels and could last more than once through. There are 3 different baseline tests which can be used, which would give you the opportunity to retest using a different baseline test at a later date. The scoring of the baseline tests are really clearly explained, but the 50 scenario scoring takes a bit of practice using the same principles as the baseline scoring. Moondog's modifications may make it simpler to score.

Yes indeed. If he is 5 he is obviously doing well if she is even considering reading comprehension as opposed to comprehension of speech alone (oral comprehension)
There are three modules to address (Picture and Talk, Picture and Text and Text alone) all of which can be tackled at one of three different language levelas so as you say, tonnes of opportunities to use it.
A bargain at about £40.
The people I train to use it really like it as do the children.

Great thanks. A.definate buy then! Moondog i will pm you.