Profiles of reading comprehension and written composition of children with high functioning autism

Research about the academic profile of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reports a variable performance, although it tends to be lower than what it is expected according to the cognitive level. In the school context, reading and writing are crucial abilities for learning in different curricular areas and they have important implications for academic, social and occupational success. A brief review is carried out about the main reading and writing disabilities that students with ASD show. Studies about reading coincide to point out an adequate knowledge of the decodification processes. However, a lower performance in reading comprehension and, particularly, inferential comprehension has been frequently described. In addition, deficits in the different components of writing have been reported, especially, handwriting and text coherence. Different factors may explain this profile of difficulties, like linguistic factors or aspects related to the psychological theories of autism, which may contribute to possible interventions.