Effectiveness of dialogic reading program on the listening comprehension and language skills of children with autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the dialogic reading (DR) program on listening, comprehension and language skills (receptive and expressive language) of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For this purpose, the effectiveness of the DR program in developing the listening comprehension and language skills (receptive and expressive language) of three children with ASD between the ages of 5-6 was examined. In addition, if the children acquired the listening comprehension and language skills (receptive and expressive language), follow-up data regarding the maintenance of these skills after 1, 2 and 3 weeks and generalization data regarding their demonstration of these skills with different tools and environments were obtained. The effect of the DR program on the activity engagement behaviour of children with ASD was investigated as an untargeted behavioural gain in the study. The social validity data of the study were determined by the subjective evaluation and social comparison method. In the study, a probe trial multiple probe design between participants, one of the single-subject research designs, was used. The findings obtained from the study show that the DR program applied to children with ASD is effective on children's listening comprehension and language skills (receptive and expressive language), that these gains are maintained one, two and three weeks after the completion of the training and that the acquired skills can be generalized to different tools and environments. It was observed that the duration of engagement in the activity, which was evaluated as untargeted behavior in the study, increased in children with ASD after participating in the program. Social comparison results showed that after the DR program, children with ASD brought their listening comprehension and language skills (receptive and expressive language) closer to their typically developing peers. In addition, as a result of interviews conducted with teachers and parents within the scope of social validity, it was seen that this program had positive effects in social terms.