Research: Observational and Incidental Learning by Children with Autism during Small Group Instruction

Authored by Ledford, JR, Gast DL, Luscre D., and Ayres KM in J Autism Dev Disord, Volume 38, Issue 1, p. 86-103, (2008).

Article summary (posted Apr 8, 2008):

Children with autism can learn to read when taught as part of a small group of "normal" students.

This study was designed to see if children with autism learn by watching other children. The study measured whether children with autism could learn to read sight words in a small group setting. Earlier studies have shown that students with disabilities can learn some of the words that are presented to other students in a group. This study showed that some of the children with autism were also able to learn in this way. The authors believe that these types of studies are very important since children with autism are often part of mainstream classrooms.

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You can access the original abstract and the complete paper is sometimes available for free via Google Scholar (look for entries that say "PDF" or "HTML" on the right side of the page).
autism, classroom, incidental learning, mainstream, read, sight, sight words
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