A Land We Can Share: Teaching Literacy to Students With Autism

One of the few books on its topic, "A Land We Can Share" provides a meaningful plan for teaching and assessing reading and writing skills for students with Autism. It is an excellent resource, sharing relevant information through personal stories, strategy descriptions, visuals, and graphic organizers. Individuals with a thorough knowledge of Autism with limited time (which is almost every teacher!) could probably skip the first chapter, "What is Autism?". This is particularly true if you have read other books by Paula Kluth, as the information about Autism in similar. However, if you have the time, the entire book is worth reading, and is an excellent source of information and resources.

Overall, "A Land We Can Share" is a much needed and essential guide for any teacher of students on the spectrum. Meaningful literacy experiences are possible for all students!

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed., Editor of the Autism newsletter, Positively Autism

A wonderful resourse for all that work with children. As a teacher I plan to share this resource with all. Especially with my paraprofessionals so they can explore and apply the strategies to the daily routine. Great resource for all in education or child care.

This book is chock-full of helpful tips on differentiated instruction that will work with not just students with autism, but ALL students. Paula has written yet another masterpiece for all those who work with autism.

I highly recommend anything that Dr. Kluth has written. You will not be disappointed by her common sense thinking and practical tips for teaching.

A Land we can Share is directed primarily at educators and para professionals working with children with ASD to welcome then into the world of literacy.

My perspective is somewhat different. I am a parent of a 7 year old girl with ASD. We are currently in the throes of teaching our daughter to read (in collaboration with her teachers and therapists at school, of course). Whereas with my older children, the process of teaching them to read happened almost intuitively and naturally (on our part as parents), for our youngest the process has involved more effort. We have had to try more things, read more literature, consider different approaches, test more software programs and reader packages.

And much as parents really just want a simple solution, the instructional rigour of Paula's book is at once insightful, engaging and inspiring. It resonated with us, in that it delved in a practical and useful way into different literacy approaches, and provided examples and suggestions that we find useful, and that can be passed on to classroom teachers and reading assistants. But even more significant than its practical applications were the themes of approach and attitude that permeate the pages. Those messages are the catch cries of so many parents with children on the spectrum. We tell teachers, administrators, friends, onlookers - try different things; children are all different; just because something works for most kids doesn't mean there won't be a different approach that will help the rest of the kids, put aside judgment; practice real inclusion.

I would highly recommend this book (as well as Paula's other books) for parents. Read it. Practice it with your children. Pass it on to teachers and school administrators.

What a wonderful resource! I was inspired to try some new things in my classroom. All were successful and motivating for my students. I teach early childhood special education and it is always a struggle to keep my expectations high, yet attainable... I LOVE the premise "presume competence" that Paula and Kelly use throughout their work. That statement was a "nudge" to remind me that my students can always do more. I know that as long as I encourage them and offer them the necessary tools, they will succeed. I began using some of my augmentative communication devices (for the students that required more assistance) with some of my stories. WOW!!! Talk about interest level increasing! My students focused on the stories at hand AND all wanted to use the devices to `help' read the stories. THANKS for the great ideas!