Code- and Meaning-related Emergent Literacy Skills and Verbal Engagement during Shared Book Reading in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulties engaging in such interactive reading due to deficits in social and language abilities. This study examined the associations between code- and meaning-related emergent literacy skills and verbal engagement in children with ASD during shared book reading. Twenty-nine children with ASD were assessed on nonverbal intelligence, code- (Chinese character recognition, print and word awareness, name writing, and phonological awareness) and meaning-related emergent literacy skills (receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and listening comprehension). Children and their caregivers participated in a reading session with an unfamiliar storybook. Audio recordings of the interactions were transcribed and coded for child verbal engagement (text reading, story description, story inference, and responsivity). After controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence, Chinese character recognition and print and word awareness significantly predicted verbal engagement in text reading, story description and inference, whereas meaning-related skills did not show a significant predictive effect. Children with ASD exhibited a distinctive literacy profile marked by relatively stronger code-related skills and weaker meaning-related skills, which also influenced their verbal engagement. These findings suggest that children with ASD may draw more heavily on visually oriented, rule-based code-related competencies than on language-based meaning-making processes during shared book reading.