Behavioral and Neurobiological Evidence for the Effects of Reading Interventions on Autistic Children: A Systematic Review
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Coburn, K. L., Kurtz, M. R., et al. (2022).
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 139, 104748.
This systematic review investigates the effects of reading interventions for children on the autism spectrum.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health
From database inception to September 2021
Peer-reviewed articles pre- and post-test design
15
Findings demonstrated positive effects of reading interventions on reading comprehension, expressive and receptive vocabulary, fluency, and phonological awareness for children on the autism spectrum ages 3 to 15 years. Increased neural activation, changes in functional connectivity, and correlations between neuroimaging results and reading comprehension outcome measures were additionally noted. Limitations to this review included lack of methodological rigor, small sample sizes, and heterogeneity between studies. Further research is warranted.
