Shared reading is a developmentally appropriate practice that supports children’s emergent literacy and language development. Participation in shared reading, however, may be compromised for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to social-communication difficulties inherent to the disorder. The primary aim of this study was to explore the extent to which children with ASD who have spontaneous verbal language engage in shared reading with caregivers. A total of 37 caregivers and their children (n = 17 ASD; n = 20 with typical development [TD]) read nine books representing three different genres (i.e., familiar, non-fiction, fiction). Analyses revealed no differences between the groups in the quantity of adult questions asked, frequency of child-initiated comments or questions, and overall levels of child responsiveness to adults. Children with ASD showed greater responsiveness to adult questions during familiar books compared with either non-fiction or fiction genres, in contrast to TD children wherein responsiveness did not differ across book genres. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for designing shared reading interventions for children with ASD who have spontaneous verbal language.

共享阅读是一种发展上适当的做法，可支持儿童的新兴读写能力和语言发展。然而，由于自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的儿童固有的社交沟通困难，参与共享阅读可能会受到影响。这项研究的主要目的是探讨自发口头语言的自闭症儿童与看护者共同阅读的程度。共有37位看护者及其子女（n = 17 ASD；n= 20（具有典型发展水平[TD]）阅读代表三种不同流派（即熟悉，非小说，小说）的九本书。分析表明，在成年人提出的问题数量，儿童提出的评论或问题的频率以及儿童对成年人的总体反应水平方面，两组之间没有差异。与非小说或小说流派相比，自闭症儿童在熟悉的书本中对成人问题表现出更大的响应能力，而TD儿童则在书本类型之间的响应能力没有差异。作者最后讨论了这些发现对设计自发口头语言的ASD儿童共享阅读干预措施的意义。