Avaliação da eficácia de dois programas de leitura dialógica na compreensão de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA) e desenvolvimento típico

Abstract

Oral narrative is an emergent literacy skill that is related to social development and school success. Yet, a significant segment of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and language impairments, either in the phonological, semantic or pragmatic domain, are at risk of developing a decay in the production and comprehension of oral or written narratives. As a consequence, it can lead to learning disabilities in several academic fields. We live in a literate society where everyday activities are based on reading and writing. Therefore, an inclusive community, where all its members have the right to learn to read and write, requires the development of early intervention programs to reduce reading comprehension deficits. Thus, the aim of the present study, was to evaluate the effectiveness of two dialogic reading programs on the oral reading comprehension of preschoolers with and without ASD. The participants were one boy and one girl (5y 4m and 4y 9m) diagnosed with ASD, a typically developing male child (4y 4m) and seven reading mediators. A single-subject experimental design (ABAB) was implemented, in which the following independent variables were considered: reading condition, including the program Reading to Engage Children With Autism in Language and Learning-RECALL. (intervention A) and Simple Dialogic Reading (intervention B). As dependent variables we considered the frequency of correct answers to factual and inferential questions; the frequency of correct answers to each type of strategy (type of questions); the percentage of visual aids usage and vocabulary acquisition. Reading mediators participated in a training program, which included autoscopy procedures and practice through modeling. The sessions were videotaped and used to quantify the frequency of use of program strategies by the reading mediators as well as the children's responses. Our results show that the mediators learned how to apply both program strategies and that all three children learned new words using both Recall and LDS, with no significant differences between the programs. However, when evaluating the relative frequency of correct answers by type of question, all three subjects performed better with the Recall protocol as compared to LDS, according to the signed-rank Wilcoxon test. Although, all participants scored higher in both factual and inferential questions while doing the Recall protocol, only the typically developing child showed a statistically significant improvement (Fischer's exact test). Altogether, our results suggest that all three children benefited from the visual prompt hierarchy. Contributions and limitations of the study are discussed.