Directions- Read the short passage below and answer the questions that follow.
Around one in every 70 Australians are on the autism spectrum. The proportion of children with autism is higher – more than 80% of all Australians on the autism spectrum are aged under 25. Autism is most prevalent among school-aged children between 5 and 14. Many of these children have social, learning, communication and intellectual difficulties. The high proportion of children on the autism spectrum presents an obvious challenge to teachers and the learning environment. Episodic memory is stimulated when exposed to visual information. People with autism sometimes perform better when given visual tasks. One way to possibly stimulate is it could be through the use of video-based instruction (VBI). VBI helped children with autism gain social skills. It showed students with autism could more easily learn functional skills and transfer and generalise them. The children are taught to actively analyse an everyday episode – a conscious memory of a previous experience - and to build alternative stories around it, with themselves as a protagonist. They learn to visualise the situation and imagine it changing. Many students with autism have often difficulty with reading comprehension. Some research shows teaching visualisation strategies to reading underachievers generally enhances reading comprehension.