Westerveld MFMalone SAClendon SBowen RHayley GPaynter J2025-01-152025-01-152024-08-01Westerveld MF, Malone SA, Clendon S, Bowen R, Hayley G, Paynter J. (2024). The home literacy environment of school-age autistic children with high support needs.. J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 37. 5. (pp. e13284-).1360-2322https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/72373BACKGROUND: As a group, autistic children with high support needs (with adaptive functioning in the range of an intellectual disability) are at risk of significant literacy difficulties. We investigated the parent-reported home literacy environment of this group of children. METHOD: Sixty-two parents of autistic children (4.5 to 18.25 years) attending an autism-specific school completed a home literacy survey reporting on their child's: (1) alphabet knowledge, (2) interest in reading, (3) activities/interactions around books, (4) reading ability, and (5) writing ability. RESULTS: We found significant positive correlations between parent-reported child interest in reading and literacy-related interactions and skills, but not with child age. Children using spoken words to communicate obtained significantly greater scores on four home-literacy subscales, but not on reading interest. CONCLUSIONS: A better understanding of the home literacy activities of autistic children with high-support needs is needed to inform educational practices aimed at promoting literacy development in this vulnerable population.(c) The author/shttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/autismhome literacy environmentintellectual disabilityparent‐reportsurveyHumansChildMaleLiteracyFemaleAdolescentReadingChild, PreschoolAutistic DisorderWritingAutism Spectrum DisorderJournal article10.1111/jar.132841468-3148CC BY-NCjournal-articlee13284-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39090071e13284