Table 2.
Results of the studies that compared the performance of children with ASD with children with typical development.
| References |
Participants N (female) |
Age M (SD) |
Reading test |
Dependent variable |
Effect direction |
Main results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnels and Sandberg (2008) | TD: 19 (3) ASD: 37 (4) |
8.81 (1.34) 9.74 (1.87) |
Wordchains test | Word reading | Ns | Strong association between word decoding fluency and sentence reading comprehension in ASD group even after the effect of age and Verbal IQ was partialled out. |
| Johnels et al. (2010) | TD: 54 (54) ASD: 20 (20) |
12.5 (2.6) 11.8 (2.7) |
H4 test and LS test | Word reading | Ns | The TD and ASD girls performed very close to the normative mean on the literacy tests. |
| Auphan et al. (2018) | TD: 89 (56) ASD: 10 (1) |
10.5 10.27 |
Phonological judgment | Phonological judgment | Analyses were carried out case by case. 3/10 of children with ASD had word reading decoding difficulties. | |
| Davidson (2016) | TD: 21 (7) ASD: 21 (3) |
– | Word Identification—WRMT-III Word Attack—WRMT-III |
Word reading Nonword decoding |
Ns Ns |
* |
| Davidson et al. (2018) | TD: 24 (11) ASD: 19 (4) |
10.97 (1.04) 11.21 (1.48) |
Word Identification—WRMT-III Word Attack—WRMT-III |
Word reading Nonword decoding |
ASD < TD ASD < TD |
Word decoding was not significantly related to reading comprehension in the TD group. In the ASD group, word decoding significantly correlated with age, reading comprehension, word reading cluster, word recognition and vocabulary. |
| Gabig (2010) | TD: 10 (3) ASD: 14 (2) |
6.8 (0.89) 6.5 (0.72) |
Word Identification—WRMT-R-NU Word Attack—WRMT-R-NU |
Word reading Nonword decoding |
Ns Ns |
Children with ASD performed better when decoding words than nonwords: 60% had slow, labored, and inaccurate decoding attempts; 22% attempted to parse the individual graphemes/phoneme relationship and sound out the nonword but could not blend the individual phonemes into a whole; 22% were able to decode the nonwords efficiently. |
| Henderson et al. (2014) | TD: 49 ASD: 49 |
– | GNWRT BAS-II |
Word reading Nonword decoding |
ASD < TD ASD < TD |
To examine the discrepancy between word and nonword reading, 25 children with ASD were pair-wise matched to 25 children with TD on raw word reading scores. The ASD group obtained significantly lower nonword reading scores than TD, suggesting that word reading skills are not supported by adequate phonological decoding skills in ASD. |
| Lu et al. (2016) | TD: 20 ASD: 25 |
10.3 (3.57) 11.3 (3.48) |
TOWRE and WRMT composite score | Word reading | ASD < TD | The reading scores of children with ASD were near the standardized mean of 100, but significantly lower than the scores of the TD group. |
| Lucas and Norbury (2014a) | TD: 30 (12) ASD-ALN: 25 (3) ASD-ALI: 12 (4) |
10.47 (1.01) 11.21 (1.9) 11.77 (1.38) |
sight word efficiency—TOWRE phonemic decoding efficiency—TOWRE |
Word recognition Nonword decoding |
ALI < (ALN = TD) ALI < (ALN = TD) |
* |
| Lucas and Norbury (2014b) | TD: 21 (9) ASD: 20 (5) |
10.46 (0.92) 10.57 (1.37) |
Sight word efficiency—TOWRE Phonemic decoding efficiency—TOWRE |
Word recognition Nonword decoding |
ASD < TDa Ns |
aHowever, groups did not differ significantly when analyzing the raw score of this subtest. |
| Macdonald et al. (2021) | TD: 15 (11) ASD: 15 (1) |
4.08 (0.67) 4.58 (0.83) |
Letter-Word Identification | Word reading | ASD < TD | The ASD group was divided in a subgroup of children with and without hyperlexia. This analysis showed that the group with both ASD and hyperlexia exhibited advanced word reading and letter naming skills that TD and ASD without hyperlexia but did not demonstrate commensurate phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondence, or language skills. |
| Cardoso-Martins et al. (2015) | TD: 19 (0) ASD: 19 (3) |
6.5 (0.38) 11.5 (3.9) |
Word reading—TDE Nonword reading |
Word reading Nonword decoding |
Ns Ns |
The ability to read and spell words with accuracy was strongly correlated with the ability to read pseudowords in ASD and TD. |
| McIntyre et al. (2017a) | TD: 44 (16) ASD: 81 (15) |
11.59 (2.25) 11.24 (2.19) |
Sight word efficiency—TOWRE Phonemic decoding efficiency—TOWRE |
Word recognition Nonword decoding |
NS Ns |
* |
| Solari et al. (2022) | TD: 735 ASD: 616 |
– | PALS-K—word Identification | Word identification | ASD > TD | * |
| Weissinger (2013) | TD: 37 (18) ASD: 10 (2) |
– | Word Identification—WRMT-III Word Attack—WRMT-III sight word efficiency—TOWRE |
Word reading Nonword decoding Word recognition |
NS NS NS |
* |
ASD, children with autism spectrum disorder; TD, children with typical development; Ns, non-significant differences between groups; WRMT-R-NU, Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised-Normative Update; TOWRE, Test of Word Reading Efficiency; PALS-K, Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarten; GNWRT, Graded Nonword Reading Test; BAS-II, British Ability Scales; TDE, Teste de Desempenho Escolar [Test of School Performance]; ALN, ASD children with age-appropriate structural language skills; ALI, ASD children with language impairments.
*
The article does not provide further qualitative information regarding word reading skills beyond the scores obtained in the reading tests.