Florida State University Associate Professor of Special Education Veronica Fleury will help enhance early literacy for preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through support from the Institute of Education Sciences.

Fleury and her colleagues from Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt universities will develop a project that includes creating a shared reading intervention for preschool children with ASD that is delivered by caregivers in their homes. The work is supported by nearly $2 million in funding from the National Center for Special Education Research.

“The importance of supporting children’s emergent literacy development cannot be underestimated; children who fall behind in oral language and literacy development are less likely to be successful readers, and their achievement lag is likely to persist throughout primary grades and beyond,” Fleury said. “Reading with young children (referred to as shared book reading) provides them with opportunities to develop language and early literacy skills that are foundational for reading.”

Shared book reading interventions have proven to be an effective method in improving language and early literacy among preschool children. While discrepancies may exist in how responsive different children are to the reading programs, Fleury and her colleagues have the goal of creating an adaptive shared reading program for caregivers to be able to tailor to the learners’ individual needs.

“Shared reading is a social activity,” Fleury added. “Many children with autism will have difficulty actively engaging in shared reading activities because of social communication difficulties that are characteristic of autism. This project will allow us to determine what instructional supports are needed, and for whom.”

“Shared reading is a social activity. Many children with autism will have difficulty actively engaging in shared reading activities because of social communication difficulties that are characteristic of autism. This project will allow us to determine what instructional supports are needed, and for whom.”

– Professor Veronica Fleury

The adaptive intervention will use two evidence-based shared reading practices in dialogic reading (DR) and print referencing (PR). DR includes the adult asking the child questions to converse about the story and improve their vocabulary and listening comprehension.

PR involves improving print and alphabet knowledge, where the adult has the child focus explicitly on the print of the story and asks questions, makes comments and tracks words.

Children who are non-responsive to the first-stage interventions will have additional second-stage intervention options designed to increase their own responses about the book or initiate comments during reading.

Using three different types of studies, the research team will conduct a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial to further evaluate the adaptive intervention. PR and DR will then be used through a four-week period, and the children’s joint attention during their final three sessions of their initial intervention will be used to determine what their second-stage intervention option will be.

“A home-based literacy program delivered by caregivers allows us to leverage familiar individuals and routines within children’s natural environments,” Fleury said. “Importantly, caregivers may be empowered by learning new strategies to positively interact with their child with ASD within the context of shared reading.

Fleury’s research at FSU focuses on optimizing learning opportunities for individuals with ASD. Her intervention work with young children with ASD is grounded in applied behavior analysis, and she has been awarded several contracts and grants over her tenure.

The FSU College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences was recently ranked as the best public college of education in the state of Florida by the U.S. News & World Report. It was also rated as the No. 6 public college of education nationally.

The special education program earned a top 15 mark by the U.S. News & World Report and is part of the college’s school of teacher education. Students accepted into the program begin to excel working with others who have ASD, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders and intellectual disabilities.

For more information about the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences visit https://cehhs.fsu.edu.

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April is Autism Acceptance Month, an opportunity to raise public awareness and support for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Florida State University experts work to promote interdisciplinary research that advances our understanding of autism and bridges the gap between scientific knowledge and clinical/educational practice.

Faculty from the College of Medicine and the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences are available to speak to media reporting on autism.

Veronica Fleury
Associate Professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
vpfleury@fsu.edu

Fleury researches how to optimize learning opportunities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Her work explores how core behavioral characteristics of ASD promote or inhibit students’ ability to participate in learning activities and how to identify instructional strategies to address academic and social-communication difficulties for young children with ASD. She also researches how to promote the adoption of evidence-based practices for individuals with ASD in school and community settings.

“The number of children identified with ASD has increased markedly over recent decades — one in 36, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control survey. Consistent with these figures, the number of students identified with ASD being served in school special education programs has risen. Now, more than ever, we need effective, sustainable and socially valid strategies to help this population succeed in various educational settings. My research focuses on optimizing learning opportunities for individuals with ASD by developing and validating instructional strategies to address early academic difficulties, with an emphasis on early literacy; investigating factors that influence consumers’ understanding and acceptance of ASD interventions; and systematically identifying areas of strength and gaps in our knowledge to inform future research.”

Amy Wetherby
Distinguished Research Professor, College of Medicine, and director of FSU Autism Institute
amy.wetherby@med.fsu.edu; (850) 644-4367

Wetherby develops and implements screening tools for ASD and communication delays in large population-based samples of children 9-24 months of age. She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and has more than 40 years of clinical experience. She also served on the DSM-5 Neurodevelopmental Workgroup of the American Psychiatric Association, which revised the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders.

“We know that early detection of autism is crucial for improving treatment for children. By identifying autism early, intervention can take advantage of the plasticity of the brain in the first three years of life. With early diagnosis and intervention, children with autism are more likely able to be included in regular classrooms from preschool to kindergarten and beyond. Tools developed by the team at the FSU Autism Institute, such as Autism Navigator and Baby Navigator, help to speed up diagnosis during this critical period.”

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