A considerable number of students face reading difficulties (e.g., 7.44% in Grade 5, Yang et al., 2022) and due to their persistence, these difficulties are likely to remain throughout life, although in a milder form (Psyridou et al., 2020). However, in addition to reading difficulties, comorbid social-emotional difficulties often occur. For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) the comorbidity between reading disorders and ASD is unclear, requiring further research due to varied prevalence (6-30%; Hendren et al., 2018). Nevertheless, students with ASD show very heterogenous reading skills, ranging from average reading to severe difficulties (Solari et al., 2019), but often reading comprehension is impaired (McInyre et al., 2017).

ASD’s core characteristics involve persistent difficulties in interaction and communication, impacting personal, family, social and educational areas. Further, ASD is descripted as a spectrum of high and low functioning subtypes, affecting intellectual and language abilities (ICD 11; WHO, 2023). ASD severity might strongly influence reading comprehension (McIntyre et al., 2017). Further, as language abilities are often impaired, cognitive skills (e.g., intelligence, Theory of Mind (ToM), executive functions) might be even more important for students with ASD to compensate for them (Wang et al., 2023). In particular, demands posed by texts have an impact on reading comprehension difficulties, as often everyday life stories are used in assessments. Students with ASD find it difficult to relate to the storyline due to less interpersonal knowledge and ToM, their struggle to understand beliefs or intentions of others (Brown et al., 2013). It can be assumed that general language skills, cognitive skills and ASD severity are more relevant concerning reading difficulties of students with ASD than linguistic characteristics of specific languages, as international evidence supports these findings regarding reading difficulties in students with ASD, e.g., USA (Solari et al., 2019) or Brazil (Cardaso-Martins et al., 2015). Therefore, our collected data enable some in-depth understanding of reading profiles and offer the possibility to discuss implications of reading comprehension assessments for students with ASD.

This study is part of the project ASDEX (Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and EXperiments in Science; funded by FWF), that aims to foster social inclusion and learning outcomes for students with ASD in secondary education. Specific teaching methods (e.g., experiments in smaller groups) in science classes were developed and evaluated. The data presented are helpful in understanding the reading comprehension skills of students with ASD, and the difficulties encountered should be considered in teaching methods to best serve all students.

This presentation addresses the following research questions:

-) To what extent can differences in reading skills of students with and without ASD and also within different ASD severity groups be observed?

-) To what extent do ASD characteristics, cognitive abilities, socio-economic status and first language influence the reading skills of students with ASD?

-) Which specific error patterns in reading comprehension are evident in students with ASD?

This paper analyzes reading skills of students with ASD in fifth to seventh grade in Austria, considering different ASD severity groups and reading profiles. The individual items of the reading test itself were also analyzed for error patterns according to the demands of the text. Regarding reading competence, reading comprehension, fluency and accuracy were measured, along with cognitive abilities (IQ). Further, teachers and parents assessed specific ASD characteristics. Therefore, 14 students with ASD were matched with their peers regarding gender, grade, type of school, cognitive abilities, age, socio-economic status, first language and spoken language(s) at home.

A standardized German reading test (LGVT; ‘reading fluency and comprehension test for 5-12th grade’; Schneider et al., 2017) was used to measure reading comprehension, reading fluency and reading accuracy in students with and without ASD. The students’ task was to read a fictional text about a king’s errand boy and select one out of three missing words for blanks in the text. Additionally, nonverbal fluid cognitive ability was measured with subtests from the CFT-20 R (‘Basic intelligence scale 20 revision’; Weiß, 2019). To assess the severity of ASD, teachers and parents filled out the ASD questionnaire of DISYPS-III (‘Diagnostic system for psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 and DSM-5 for children and adolescents’; Döpfner & Görtz-Dorten, 2019). The following three subscales were used for analyses: persistent deficits in social interaction and communication, difficulties in social interaction with (non-)verbal language, and overall ASD symptoms. Students provided information on gender, first language(s) and socio-economic status (indicated by number of books at home). 14 students with ASD (age: M=13.68, SD=1.08; IQ: M=99.46, SD=15.08; first language German: n=9) were matched with 14 of their classmates without ASD (age: M=13.33, SD=1.07; IQ: M=94.25, SD=15.85; first language German: n=9) based on gender, grade, school type, age, first language(s), spoken language(s) at home, cognitive abilities and socio-economic status. Gender (n male=12, n female=2), grade (n 5th=4, n 6th=4, n 7th=6) and school type (n academic high school=6, n middle school=8) were identical for students with and without ASD and there were non-significant group differences in the other variables. Reading comprehension skills varied widely in both groups, as students with ASD achieved a percentage range (PR) between five to 97 and students without ASD between one and 71. In order to answer the research questions, we looked at descriptive data for frequencies of students with reading difficulties (PR<10). Further, we tested for group differences of reading comprehension, fluency and accuracy among students with and without ASD, considering various ASD severity groups. Regression analyses explored whether ASD severity, cognitive abilities, first language(s) and socio-economic status influenced the reading skills of students with ASD. Bootstrapping was used to control for the small sample size. Additionally, we qualitatively analyzed individual items to understand error patterns, identified potential challenges posed by the reading test and tested for group differences among students with different ASD severity.

This paper presents reading profiles of students with and without ASD in fifth, sixth and seventh grade in Austria. The study provides insights into reading comprehension and reading error patterns as a result of demands posed by the reading assessment used. Comparisons are drawn regarding reading scores with matched peers and within severity groups, considering persistent deficits in social interaction and communication, difficulties in social interaction with (non-)verbal language and overall ASD symptoms. The results indicated no significant group differences in reading comprehension, fluency and accuracy between students with and without ASD. Both groups showed heterogenous reading skills ranging from reading difficulties to high-performing reading scores. However, differences emerge when considering ASD severity groups. The heterogeneity of reading scores is also reflected in the analysis of individual items, given the diverse cognitive skills (particularly low to high achieving) and ASD severities (not noticeable to strongly noticeable difficulties) observed in our study. Influencing factors on reading comprehension, including ASD characteristics, cognitive abilities, socio-economic status and first language(s) will be discussed. It can be concluded that students with ASD in secondary education show heterogenous reading profiles. A considerable amount of the students with ASD highlight the urgent need for individualized evidence-based reading interventions. Further, these findings underline the importance of adequate reading comprehension assessments, and the necessity of including other student related factors in diagnostics as ASD severity or cognitive skills.

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