This document outlines a proposed intervention project to improve the attitude towards reading of a Year 2 student with Autism. The student, named Alex, has a poor attitude towards reading and avoids literacy tasks. The intervention will involve creating five multimodal "readers" tailored to Alex's science interests over ten days. Data on Alex's reading attitude will be collected before and after through tests and observations to analyze the effectiveness of student-directed texts in improving his reading attitude. Relevant literature on reading attitude, Autism, and mobile technologies will inform the project's design.

1. EDUC8509
Intervention
Project Proposal
Annie-Rose Durack

2. Title
 Theeffectiveness of student directed
multimodal texts in improving the attitude
towards reading of a Year 2 student with
Autism.

3. Statement of the Issue
 Alex has been diagnosed to be on the
spectrum of Autism.
 He goes to extension for numeracy, however,
has enormous anxiety in regards to literacy.
 He has a very poor attitude to reading and
consequently will/does not do his set readers
for homework. Both his teacher and his
parents would like to see a shift in this.
 He has intense interests about a range of
science topics and enjoys to ‘google’ to learn
facts.

4. Research Question
 How effective are student directed
multimodal texts in improving the attitude
toward reading of a Year 2 student with
Autism?

5. Literature Review – Attitude to
Reading
 Debated overtime, whether reading proficiency impacts attitude to reading or whether attitude to
reading impacts reading proficiency and literacy skills.
 Rowell (1972)
 Investigated factors related to change in attitude toward reading by implementing a corrective reading
intervention, proving age, socio-economic status nor sex had any significant correlation to the change in
attitude to reading.
 It is not necessarily the most effective approach to target improving children’s literacy skills in order to
improve their attitude to reading.
 McKenna and Kear (1990)
 If children are not engaged in the text presented to them, or in reading generally, their skills will not show
considerable improvement.
 Engaging in text they are interested in will foster a far better opportunity for them to learn and strengthen
their literacy skills.
 Smith (1990)
 Attitude to reading stems from their reading experiences in early childhood.
 Educational professionals are must foster positive attitude to reading in the early years of schooling.
 Seitz (2010)
 Recurring failures to succeed in reading and literacy will cause self-concept issues and consequently
complicate a student’s ability to learn.
 Children are often given readers appropriate to their level which often will cause students to feel upset and
disengaged as though they are having to read ‘baby books’.
 Imperative that students are presented with interesting and cognitively challenging texts either orally or by
recording.

6. Literature Review – Autism
 Bennetto, Pennington, and Rogers (1996)
 Poor performance on measures of executive function (EF).
 EF is a term used by psychologists to refer to cognitive abilities
that control and regulate behaviour.
 Yirmiya, Sigman, Kasari and Mundy (1992)
 People with Autism often struggle to share and verbalise normal
emotional states and may show a range of behaviours
alternative to people without Autism.
 Baron-Cohen’s (1991)
 People with Autism do not actually understand emotion.
 Inability to form and establish emotional relationships.

7. Literature Review – Mobile
Technologies
 Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula and Sharples (2004)
 Provides the sufficient equipment to offer rich multimedia
experiences and for location-specific resources.
 Collaborative learning.
 Liu, Wang, Liang, Chan, Ko and Yang (2003)
 Enable teachers and students to utilise computing power at
anywhere at anytime.
 Research and gain information more freely.
 Howitt, Pegrum and Streipe (2012)
 Many benefits, including portability and immediacy
 Enable a new way of learning that can be tapered to suit and
motivate individual children.

8. Intervention
 Research Alex’s interests with him.
 Write and design a set of five books – both hard and soft
copy over the ten days.
 The soft copy will be created using a Macbook on
Powerpoint and will include information, images and Alex’s
voice reading the text.
 The hard copy will be printed A5 size and bound to make
books.
 At the end of the ten days, Alex will have a box set of five
‘readers’ that he is interested in, as well as a USB containing
all five ‘e-books’.
 Alex will take home the books throughout the ten days
once completed and will also be give him a chart to take
home where he will place a sticker each time he reads his
books.

9. Participants
 Me – Preservice Teacher
Alex
Alex’s Classroom Teacher
Alex’s Assistant

10. Data Collection and Analysis
 Attitude to reading test (similar to the McKenna
and Kear Elementary Attitude to Reading Test)–
mark his emotions in a response to a range of
questions about how he feels about reading.
 Attitude test at the end of the ten days similar to
the initial test, however, modified to suit the books
he has made.
 Interview/discussion with Alex about his attitude to
reading.
 Observations and anecdotal notes on his
engagement with the activity and the texts and
willingness to read them.
 Personal reflection on the data recorded.

11. Context
 Year 2 boy with Autism.
 Elite boys’ school in the western suburbs.
 Full time assistant.
 Very argumentative with both staff and
students.
 Has settled in this year more than previous
years.
 Peers are helping him and guiding him
with his social skills.

12. Materials
 Macbook
 Internet access for researching
 Printer
 Paper
 USB
 Binder
 Box
 Chart
 Stickers

13. Ethical Considerations
 Consent and information forms –
classroom teacher, Alex and Alex’s
parents.
 Alex will be aware that he does not have
to continue from any point if he chooses.
 If photos or work sample are to be
taken/used, permission will be sought.

14. References
Baron-Cohen, S. (1991). Do people with Autism understand what causes emotions? Child Development, 62(2),
385-395. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Bennetto, L., Pennington, B., & Rogers, S. (1996). Intact and impaired memory functions in Autism. Child Development,
67(4), 1816-1835. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Howitt, C., Pegrum, M., & Striepe, M. (2012). The impact of iPads on pre-sevrice teachers’ learning: Implications for
teaching and learning.
Liu, T., Wang, H., Liang, J., Chan., H, Ko, H., & Yang, J. (2003). Wireless and mobile technologies to enhance teaching
and learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, (19), 371-382. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.108
McKenna, M., & Kear, D. (1990) Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher,
(May), 626-639.
Naismith, L., Lonsdale, P., Vavoula, G., & and Sharples, M. (2004). Literature review in mobile technologies and
learning. Futurelab Series, (11), 1-44.
Rowell, C. (1972-73). An investigation of factors related to change in attitude toward reading. Journal of Reading
Behavior, 5(4), 266-272. Retrieved from Sage Journals.
Seitz, L. (2010). Student attitudes toward reading: A case study. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education, 3(2), 31-44.
Retrieved from https://journal.buffalostate.edu/index.php/soe/article/view/107/33
Smith, M. (1990). A longitudinal investigation of reading attitude development from childhood to adulthood. The
Journal of Educational Research. (83)4, 215-219. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Yirmiya, N., Sigman, M., Kasari, C., & Mundy, P. (1992). Empathy and cognition in high-functioning children with Autism.
Child Development, (63)1, 150-160. Retrieved from JSTOR.