English Comprehension

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Can anyone give advice on how to help an Asperger's student understand how to do english comprehension. Reading through it and explaining it isnt working. Thanks.

If reading the questions first is an option, suggest that.

Practice with verbal short summaries of anything and everything.

This is a work in progress for us.

My son loves to do roleplays of the reading. I also ask him comprehension questions of my own in addition to what is in the reading material, on things I suspect will be issues. I make sure that he knows what pronoun is referring to whom or what, for example. I also do what screen_name suggests and have him do summaries to test comprehension.

I remember having reading comprehension problems when I was younger. If I remember correctly, my problems began with memorizing vocabulary words. Later, I had issues understanding symbolism (“How do we know that the author intended the red hat to represent ...? If he intended that, why didn’t he just come out and say it”).

My daughter (who is not diagnosed, but has a few symptoms) had similar issues, which I recognized early on. We enrolled her in a learning program to help. I also tried to help by reading books out loud with her (each of us taking turns reading out loud – and then discussing what we read). We read some of my favorite books from my youth, including the first few Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Did this help? Yes and No. She’s in college now, but still struggles (vis a vis her peers). It just means that she needs to work harder (and spend more time) than her peers. I suppose it’s good to know early in life your relative strengths and weaknesses.

My asd daughter also has a hard time with reading comprehension. We review difficult subjects like science, with tons of new vocab, ahead of time during the weekend. So when the teacher gives a lesson on the chapter she is already familiar with it. Also, she has to read 20 min a day, and if we aren't reviewing her science textbook, she will read a short story out loud. She likes the Chicken Soup series for kids and teens because it is emotional, deals with kids her age and is short. It is easier for her to read something that she is interested in. We read a paragraph at a time, then I will ask her a question regarding that paragraph and ask her to point to the sentence that shows the answer.


If possible choose something that the reader is very interested in.

A short story might be best depending on the readers ability, attention span and fluency.

Review any new words ahead of time, try to make the definitions of words relevant/personal to the reader.

Read out loud, take turns if needed.

Break it down to one paragraph at a time, check for understanding by asking questions and having the reader point to the sentences that have the answers.
How do we know they feel....?
What is happening..?
Could you point to the sentence that shows.....

After reading story/book, depending on their ability, have reader break down and/or draw the story into,
what happens first, second, third, etc..
beginning, middle, end
intro, problem, climax, resolution

If possible work on a book report....

How to Write a Book Report (Upper Elementary School level) http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbo ... telem.html
(Middle/ High School level) http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html