Dialogic Reading for Shared Reading for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with a Whole-School Approach: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

According to the statistics provided by the Education Bureau (EDB) and the Social Welfare Department, about 16% of the total enrollment in subsidized kindergartens have special needs, among which 46% have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.However, the quota for professional development for kindergarten teachers on catering for students with disabilities is about 365 (3% of the kindergarten teacher population),offered by EDB in 2024-25. The figure reflects inadequate training on catering foryoung children with special needs who often lag behind in literacy, and language development.The study aims to provide training to teachers with dialogic reading strategies forshared reading and facilitate joint attention and social acceptance of young childrenwith autism spectrum disorder. An enriched dialogic reading with emphasis on social interaction and communication for shared reading has been piloted for 44 youngchildren with ASD from six kindergartens, with a random assignment to two groups (intervention and wait-list) who completed eight intervention sessions across four weeks.The experimental group gained significantly in language development (receptive and expressive vocabulary) and social understanding with a large effect size. To adapt the intervention for children with various language levels of ASD, the instructionalstrategies were further differentiated into three levels: easy, medium, and difficult. A 3-hour training workshop was provided to teachers in the pilot schools. Teacher participants also reported high teacher self-efficacy in supporting the reading and learning of young children with ASD. Teachers highlighted that strategies in enhancing joint attention, emotional understanding and expression effectively addressed the developmental needs of ASD children and also benefited typical peers.In the current cluster randomized controlled trial, about 200 participating children witha whole-school approach (WSA) will be randomly assigned to two conditions (the experimental and waitlist) for an 8-session reading intervention. The objectives of the study include: a) examining the effectiveness of an enriched dialogic reading approachto enhancing language development and social understanding in the inclusive classroom, b) investigating teacher efficacy in using enriched dialogic reading strategies to cater for learner diversity, and c) promoting WSA in achieving inclusive and equitable quality education. Qualitative comments from teachers and parents will also be collected to validate the impact on adopting WSA. If successful, the study will contribute to inclusive, equitable education and effective reading instruction for all children by promoting teacher efficacy in accommodating diverse needs of special learners and realizing the sustainable development goal in quality education.