An examination of collaborative strategic reading-high school (CSR-HS) intervention in students with ASD

This study investigates the effects of implementing Collaborative Strategic Reading–High School (CSR–HS) on reading comprehension and challenging behavior outcomes for three high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using a combined single subject research design consisting of a delayed, concurrent multiple-baseline and an alternating treatments with reversal, three high school students with ASD were paired with neurotypical reading partners to learn and use reading strategies with informational text two to three times per week. The alternating treatment conditions were CSR-HS with choice of text (i.e., CSR-HS-C) and CSR-HS without the opportunity to choose the reading text (i.e., CSR-HS-NC). Daily comprehension checks were collected and visually inspected along with data on occurrences of various challenging behaviors exhibited by each participant during intervention. Fidelity of implementation was also measured. Increased reading comprehension scores and decreased incidences of challenges behaviors were detected for the three participants upon implementation of intervention conditions. As for the influence of the choice component on the measured outcomes, no clear differentiation between conditions was observed in terms of reading comprehension gains and reduction in challenging behavior across the three participants, suggesting that the addition of choice did not show an added value to CSR-HS intervention.