Autism News & Updates: UCR Professor Receives Grant To Aid Children With Autism Enhance Reading Comprehension

By using a method that will catch the children's field of interests, assistant professor of special education in the University of California, Riverside Michael Solis created a reading program that will help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The said program aimed to enhance their understanding of what they are reading.

The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences gave Solis $1.5 million grant to support his work on this program to address the needs of children with autism, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affects 1 in 68 children. According to The Press Enterprise, Solis said it is a huge honor to be given ample resources even at his current level.

Solis stated that they will hook and increase the children's engagement by providing reading materials in line with their areas of interest. As they capture the attention and interests of children, they will teach them skills that will help them understand the reading materials.

The 46-year-old freshman instructor at UCR used his experience as a former public elementary and middle school teacher in designing a reading intervention program to provide reading comprehension skills to children with autism. Solis told UCR Today that he strongly believes students with ASD will perform excellently not only in academics but also in other behavioral and learning issues with improved skills in reading comprehension.

Solis then added that these issues they are facing might not become a major issue later on. Solis gained the idea of creating this program while he was conducting an intensive reading intervention program in Arizona, when kids are able to read excellently but when they are asked what the story is about, they have no idea.

Due to that circumstance, it motivated Solis to proceed to graduate school and learn more about vocabulary development and reading comprehension. Moreover, Solis said that one of the reasons he wants to work with children with autism is that his nephew was also diagnosed with it.

Educator and board member for the Autism Society Inland Empire Theresa McFarland, on the other hand, said that any program with a track record that is proven that can be imitated will be a big help to the program, which, Solis said, is the goal even though the program is still at its early stages of development. McFarland said she is eager to learn about the program.

McFarland said that this program gives off a separate but equal vibe to some education focused with addressing autistic needs. She also added that the awareness is focused on autism and the importance of using evidence-based practices and with this, an evidence-based intervention is what an educator should have.

According to an article published in UCR Today, Solis stated that there might be a number of programs for language and behavioral interventions for students with autism but there is no program that is specifically designed to enhance reading comprehension. He said that the inadequacy of educational programs might be from the lack of research regarding the topic.

Solis hopes that the new study will be able to spell out how a student with ASD gains knowledge with unique processes and methods. Meanwhile, tests for the program will commence in spring in Riverside County and Texas school districts.

Solis and his collaborators from the University of Texas at Austin's Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risks, Sharon Vaughn and Colleen Reutebuch will develop the program. They will also test it by working with elementary and middle school teachers in a span of three years. 

The Press Enterprise also mentioned that Solis was a graduate student when he started working on the program. His proposal was submitted three times before it was officially accepted. The program has the potential to be expanded to children having difficulties in reading comprehension, not limited to children with autism, if it is successful.