Coming February 3, 2026

Written by Emily Iland, MA

I highly recommend this book for use with all individuals who have problems with reading comprehension. — Temple Grandin, PhD

Improve Reading Comprehension for Autistic Individuals

Although they may be excellent readers, those with autism often need support for comprehension. Comprehension difficulties are subtle, qualitative, and difficult to tease out. As a result, their substantial level of risk for reading comprehension problems is often overlooked or unaddressed, and many students struggle in silence.

This is where Drawing a Blank comes in. Even the most competent educational professionals in both general education and special education settings have limited training and experience helping autistic readers. Using a clearly stated and well-organized approach, Drawing a Blank provides educational professionals and parents with the tools to improve comprehension for good readers who have comprehension difficulties, as well as readers who struggle with both decoding and comprehension. This book explains where and why comprehension failure occurs and offers evidence-based and promising practices to use, based on a thorough assessment of a student’s needs.

This second edition describes new evidence-based interventions and 15 new research summaries on how to implement them.