Teaching social studies content to students with autism using a graphic organizer intervention

摘要

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) emphasizes the teaching of social studies to provide students with information, critical thinking skills, and experiences to allow them to grow into responsible and effective citizens. There have been few studies focused on social studies instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities. One of the barriers to teaching social studies to students without and with disabilities is students' ability to read and understand written expository text. This current study investigated the use of a modified graphic organizer to promote improved expository text comprehension for middle school students with autism. Three students were instructed to use a modified graphic organizer intervention to answer nine items from United States history passages. Results indicated that each of the three students increased their ability to independently respond to the nine comprehension items.