Assessing reading comprehension abilities in non-verbal autistic children: evaluating the use of a non-verbal test format

Comprehension skills are crucial elements of reading but are often difficult to assess in non-verbal children. Little research has been conducted with non-verbal autistic children and many reading tests require verbalisation, which may under-estimate the reading ability for this group. To ascertain the listening comprehension abilities of non-verbal autistic children (aged five to 15 years), a modified, multiple choice, non-verbal form of a listening comprehension assessment, comparable to the widely-used 'New Salford Reading Test' was created. Three groups were tested: verbal autistic children (n=31); non-verbal autistic children (n=40); and verbal non-autistic children with learning difficulties (n=32). For all three groups, both traditional and non-verbal reading assessments were conducted. The non-verbal autistic group was unable to score using the traditional version, but their listening comprehension skills were identified with the non-verbal test. These findings suggest that the use of the non-verbal test may offer a good assessment of the listening comprehension abilities for non-verbal autistic children.