Book Reviews on Special Needs
and Disability Topics

Publisher: FUTURE HORIZONS, INC.
www.FHautism.com

November 2010

Review by Special Needs Almanac

How Do I Teach This Kid To Read? : teaching literacy skills to young children with autism, from phonics to fluency
Kimberly A. Henry
Publisher website: www.FHautism.com

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” - Dr. Seuss

For children with autism spectrum disorders, reading is often factual memorization of letters and words. Some children on the autism spectrum are naturally very skilled at encoding and decoding, and learn to read letters and words easily and at an early age. Other children on the spectrum struggle with reading. This book is for both groups. For children with autism and other developmental challenges who are struggling with reading, the book provides practical, easy-to-implement instructional strategies. For those children who have learned letters and words by memorization, this book goes beyond the mere reciting of words on a page.

The author is passionate about teaching children to read, and about how reading opens up the world for children. “Reading is so much more than just letters and words on a page. Reading is communication. Reading is imagination. Reading is participation.” She has been a teacher for about twenty years, and has compiled instructional tips and strategies learned from her experience in the classroom as well as from parents and other teachers.

The book begins with phonemic awareness, which is the ability to work with individual sounds in words, known as phonemes. This is followed by chapters on vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Each chapter is packed with fun activities, songs and suggested books. The activities are truly no-brainer, as the author includes a list of materials for each activity, and walks you through every step. You do not have to be a teacher to use this book. The child will be having so much fun, she will not realize she is learning.

A CD-ROM comes with the book. The CD contains printable tools to help you implement what the book teaches. You would spend well over $100 on the tools contained on the CD if you were to buy them at a teacher supply store. And for you Mac users – the CD worked fine on my Mac.

There are useful resources and references at the end of the book.

Whether you are a teacher or parent trying to teach a child with autism or other developmental challenges to read, this book will be your roadmap. It will help you open up the world for these children through reading. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Strongly recommended.

Five stars out of five.

Every child is deserving of the opportunity to learn. Let not autism hinder your child from learning. Log on to Future Horizons and secure yourself a copy of How Do I Teach This Kid To Read? : teaching literacy skills to young children with autism, from phonics to fluency and see your angel go places.

Reviewer:
Special Needs Almanac
The Source for Special Needs
www.SpecialNeedsAlmanac.com

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