How We Help
Phonemic Awareness: Teaching children to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words.
Phonics: Connecting sounds to letters or letter combinations. This helps children decode unfamiliar words.
Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and accurately, without hesitation. It is developed through repeated practice and reading out loud.
Activities include timed readings, guided reading sessions, and choral reading.
Expanding vocabulary helps readers understand more words and make sense of the texts they read. This can involve direct instruction of new words, learning word roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and using context clues.
Students may also use flashcards, word maps, and other activities to reinforce new vocabulary.
Understanding what is read is crucial. Comprehension strategies can include:
- Pre-reading activities: Activating prior knowledge about the topic.
- During reading: Highlighting key details, summarizing, asking questions, or making predictions.
- Post-reading activities: Discussing the main idea, answering questions, and identifying themes or lessons.
A variety of texts, such as stories, nonfiction, and poetry, should be introduced to promote broad reading skills.
Reading aloud, partner reading, and independent reading are key to reinforcing reading skills.
Programs should be adaptable to meet the needs of students with different reading levels, learning styles, and abilities. This includes using scaffolding techniques, small group work, and differentiated materials.
Ongoing assessment helps identify students’ strengths and areas for improvement. This can include formal tests, quizzes, or informal observations.
Programs may also include regular check-ins, quizzes, and reflective activities to track progress over time.
Examples of Reading Instruction Programs:
Structured Literacy Programs: Focus on explicit teaching of phonology, orthography, and syntax. Examples include Wilson Reading System and Orton-Gillingham approach.
Balanced Literacy Programs: Combine direct instruction in phonics with opportunities for independent reading and comprehension development. Examples include Fountas & Pinnell and Reading Recovery.
Reading Recovery: A short-term intervention program for struggling readers, aimed at improving reading and writing skills in the first grade.
RTI (Response to Intervention): A framework that provides tiered interventions, where students receive more intensive support as needed.
Reading & Literacy
Nexus ABA Therapy offers grade-levelled reading instruction programs specifically geared to teach students how to read more fluently and advance in reading comprehension skills. Our digital platforms and apps with personalized, interactive reading lessons and resources provide children have access to high-quality illustrated reading materials at different grade levels. Our programs include a vast library of levelled reading resources, including books, lesson plans, worksheets, and assessments and quizzes, all organized by reading level, topic, and skill.
Key features include:
Levelled Reading Materials from Grades 1-5. This includes a collection of books and texts, categorized into levels that correspond to the development of early reading skills. This allows teachers to find appropriate materials based on a student’s reading proficiency.
Lesson Plans: Children can access comprehensive lesson plans aligned with various reading skills, such as comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency.
Teaching Resources: In addition to books, our reading program includes printable worksheets, quizzes, and project ideas to reinforce reading and comprehension skills.
Assessment Tools: It also includes tools for tracking students’ reading progress, helping educators identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Interactive Resources: Some interactive features allow students to engage with the material more dynamically, fostering an interactive learning environment.
To better support children with autism who may be behind in language comprehension and expressive language, our reading and literacy programs are geared to support in developing a variety of language skills, including:
1. Vocabulary Building
Word Lists and Flashcards and Interactive Activities introduce new words and reinforce understanding. Children learn new vocabulary that is often tied to the books or resources provided, ensuring that they encounter words in context.
Contextual Learning: Words are presented in the context of stories, allowing children to understand their meanings through usage rather than in isolation.
2. Comprehension & Communication
Guided Reading: Our reading platform offers levelled reading books with guided questions that help improve comprehension. By analyzing stories, students learn to recognize main ideas, make inferences, and recall details.
Pre-Reading Activities: Prior to reading, students can engage in activities that focus on reading goals or reading with a purpose, such as:
making predictions
generating questions about the text
Reading comprehension strategies
Post-Reading Activities:
Answering questions
Summarizing the text
Relating the story to their own experiences
Story retelling
Identifying the moral of the story
Group discussion and conversation
3. Writing Skills
Writing Prompts and Graphic Organizers encourage children to develop their oral narrative, story retelling, and writing skills. These prompts help with creativity, organization, and the use of correct grammar and punctuation.
4. Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
Phonics Lessons: Our reading programs integrate phonics-based activities that support early literacy skills. By learning letter sounds and how they combine to form words, children develop a stronger foundation for reading and spelling.
Interactive Phonics Games: Games that focus on phonemic awareness and letter-sound relationships help children decode words and build fluency in reading.
5. Fluency Development
Repeated Readings: Children are encouraged to read the same stories multiple times, which helps build fluency and confidence. This repeated exposure helps with word recognition, speed, and expression.
Record and Playback Features: The platform allows students to record their readings and listen to themselves, giving them the chance to improve their pronunciation, pacing, and expression.
6. Interactive Features
Engaging Multimedia: The use of animations, sounds, and illustrations helps to keep children engaged and motivated to read, which promotes a positive attitude toward language development.
Digital Resources: Interactive features like e-books, quizzes, and assessments support active learning and provide immediate feedback, which helps children track their progress.
7. Assessment and Progress Monitoring
Comprehensive Reports are available to assess a child’s language development, including progress reports and analytics that track areas of growth and areas needing more attention.
Our ABA therapy reading programs create an environment where children can practice a variety of language skills at their own pace while being guided through structured and engaging content. This blend of reading, vocabulary, writing, and phonics support enhances a child’s overall language development. Our reading materials and resources vary in complexity and support children with different academic levels, with some designed for early learners and others for advanced readers or those with specific learning challenges.