Online reading sessions linked to reading gains for autistic children in small Australian study

Autistic children who had reading sessions online with speech-language pathologists improved their reading compared with a comparison group, according to Flinders University in Australia. The university’s press release was published by News-Medical on 6 November. It describes a feasibility study that appeared in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology in 2025.

A feasibility study is an early, small-scale test. It checks whether an approach can be delivered and is worth studying further. It is not proof that something works for everyone.

What the study did

The study took place in an area of Western Sydney with high levels of social and economic disadvantage. The plan was for small groups of autistic children to have reading sessions in person. Then COVID-19 stay-at-home orders came in partway through. The sessions moved online and became one-to-one.

The sessions used ABRACADABRA, a free interactive web tool first developed in 2002 at Concordia University in Montreal. According to the release, it has 33 activities. They cover letters and sounds (phonics), reading fluency, understanding what you read (comprehension), and spelling.

Professor Joanne Arciuli led the study. She said it carried on because the team had an ethical duty to keep providing support to the children taking part. She said the move online let them study reading support under the same real-world pressures that clinics were facing at the time.

What they found

The children were split into two groups that had reading sessions and a comparison (control) group that didn’t. The researchers had expected the children who also did shared book reading to improve more in understanding what they read. The release calls the outcome “a surprise”. It says children in both session groups made significant gains compared with the comparison group.

Professor Arciuli pointed to the conditions families were dealing with. She said the gains were interesting because of:

“the mandated disruptions and complex personal and family issues experienced by our participants.”

The press release doesn’t say how many children took part. It also doesn’t give the size of the improvements, and in one place it describes them as “some gains”. We couldn’t open the full paper to check these details.

Why it matters

Professor Arciuli said autistic children have very varied reading profiles. Some find comprehension harder than reading words accurately. She mentioned 2021 research drawing on 26 studies with more than 1,200 autistic children. It found that, on average, word reading scores were higher than reading comprehension scores. That pattern won’t apply to every child. But it suggests one-size-fits-all reading support may miss what some children need.

She also said the findings could matter for online delivery, which is sometimes called telepractice. This could help autistic children in rural or remote areas who can’t get face-to-face support.

A note of caution

This is one small, early-stage study. It took place under very unusual lockdown conditions, and the main account of it is a university press release, not independent reporting. The study changed its design partway through, and we don’t have the full results. It’s best read as a sign that online, one-to-one reading support is worth studying properly. It isn’t firm evidence about what works.

The researchers did not say what happens next. Larger studies would be needed to show whether the results hold up.

This piece summarises reporting by News-Medical, from a Flinders University press release. Read the original articles for the full story.