Impact of reading intervention on the phonological awareness of children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: To review studies that have intervention in reading with impacts on phonological awareness in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Research strategies: Searches took place until February 2021 in Cochrane, Embase, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature), PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and gray literature databases.

Selection criteria: The review included experimental studies with preschoolers and schoolchildren with ASD. Two independent reviewers selected the studies and, in case of disagreement, a third reviewer was consulted.

Data analysis: Joanna Briggs Institute checklists were used for risk of bias. A random effects meta-analysis was performed and the certainty of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE tool.

Results: Eight studies with some impact on phonological awareness were reviewed. The risk of bias was low and moderate. The certainty of the evidence was low for randomized trials and very low for non-randomised trials. Comparison of pre- and post-therapy on the Preschool Literacy Test (TOPEL) showed that children with ASD improved phonological awareness, with a mean difference between baseline and post-therapy of 6.21 (95% CI = 3.75-8.67; I2 = 0%).

Conclusion: Shared reading and software activities with words and phrases can alter phonological awareness. These results support further research with larger samples and a detailed description of the intervention to observe its effectiveness in phonological awareness.