Lexical and Goal Inference Making in a Cooperative Story Mapping for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their Peers

ABSTRACT

Three elementary school students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and their peers in cooperative learninggroups participated in lexical and goal inference making in a cooperative story mapping intervention. Amultiple-baseline design across participants was implemented to assess the intervention effect on readingcomprehension skills of students with ASDs. Generalization of learned skills and social validity of the participantswere also examined. Students with ASDs as well as peers increased their reading comprehension scores, especially oninferential questions. This study contributes to the existing literature on effective reading instruction strategies forstudents with ASDs in an inclusive educational setting.