title: The Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
abstract: A high percentage of school-age students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties leading to academic disadvantage. These difficulties may be related to differences in children's emergent literacy development in the preschool years. In this study, we examined the relationship between emergent literacy skills, broader cognitive and language ability, autism severity, and home literacy environment factors in 57 preschoolers with ASD. The children showed strengths in code-related emergent literacy skills such as alphabet knowledge, but significant difficulties with meaning-related emergent literacy skills. There was a significant relationship between meaning-related skills, autism severity, general oral language skills, and nonverbal cognition. Identification of these meaning-related precursors will guide the targets for early intervention to help ensure reading success for students with ASD.
authors.affiliation: Griffith Institute for Educational Research, School of Allied Health Sciences, Griffith Health Centre, G40, Room 2.70, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia. m.westerveld@griffith.edu.au.|Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia. m.westerveld@griffith.edu.au.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia. m.westerveld@griffith.edu.au.
authors.forename: M F
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5194-2335
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Westerveld
authors.affiliation: Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia.|AEIOU Foundation, PO Box 226, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia.|Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paynter
authors.affiliation: Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trembath
authors.affiliation: Griffith Institute for Educational Research, School of Allied Health Sciences, Griffith Health Centre, G40, Room 2.70, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia.|Autism Centre of Excellence, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mount Gravatt, QLD, 4122, Australia.|University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.affiliation: DClinNeuropsy, Child Development Unit, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hodge
authors.affiliation: Griffith Institute for Educational Research, School of Allied Health Sciences, Griffith Health Centre, G40, Room 2.70, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4222, Australia.|Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Long Pocket, Brisbane, Australia.|Autism Centre of Excellence, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mount Gravatt, QLD, 4122, Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D000067010:Literacy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading
keywords: ASD; Emergent literacy; Preschool-age