Working, Reading

These past few weeks have been crazy---
First of all, I have been getting lots of teaching work because all the teachers have been getting sick so I am in one classroom and when another teacher feels sick they come to me to see if I am working the next day, and then they book me, so I have been making my rounds of the school which is super... I love it when I walk down the hall and all the kids say, "Hi Miss V" with a smile on their face. On the downside I am terrible at remembering names, and am reminded of the Bryan Regan skit about not knowing people's names... Hi buddy, Hi buckaroo, I usually go with "Hi!" The other day after I said hi, a boy said, "do you remember my name?" oh crap... "Billy?" I ask with a smile on my face hoping that he gets that I know his name is not Billy and will laugh and say his name for me. "No", he says with a smile. Oh crap again goes through my mind. Luckily a girl behind me says his name and I repeat it. Thank God for little girls!
This week I am also working 4 supper shifts at Swiss Chalet, so for a few days I work at school and then come home, eat something, and off to work again until 9. On Sat. I am also working at cleaning someone's house, and then, you guessed it, back to Swiss Chalet.
Sunday, working at Church and then going out with some friends.. much needed!!!
Money is getting better, but I have even less of social life than before!

Next topic:
Reading.
How do children learn to read?
If you walk into a Kindergarten- grade 3 classroom EVERYTHING is about reading and strategies used in reading. This is how children learn to read... right?
The past two days I have worked in an autistic classroom, not a "normal" classroom and definitely not all about reading and writing all the time.
HOWEVER,
many of these students can read, and impressed the heck out of me by doing so. They know when you skip words in books that they have never heard before, and just stand back and watch some of them on the computer!
The question I ask you is how did they learn to read?
Some people think that kids can just teach themselves how to read, I am not one of them- pretty sure I am dyslexic- but have never been tested... no need to know, but would have gotten some more help through school if I had been...
Can MOST kids learn to read on their own?