Investigating a reading comprehension intervention for high school students with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study

We adapted and piloted Collaborative Strategic Reading-High School, a reading comprehension intervention, with three high school students with autism spectrum disorder to investigate its effects on their reading comprehension. Using a nonconcurrent, multiple-baseline design, participants with autism spectrum disorder were paired with a neurologically typical (neurotypical) reading partner to learn and use reading strategies with informational text two to three times per week. Daily comprehension checks were collected and visually inspected for trends along with data on the number of challenging behaviors and social interactions displayed during intervention. Fidelity of implementation was also measured. Though exploratory, increases in comprehension and interactions were noted along with decreases in challenging behaviors. Implications for practice and research are discussed.