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Reading Comprehension Struggles

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Reading comprehension is a complex task involving your child, the text, and the multidimensional task of reading. These variables combine to create reading comprehension.

Your Child

Consider your child. To achieve reading comprehension, your child must bring a positive mindset, background knowledge, and reading skills to what they read. If your child is a reluctant or struggling reader, does he have a positive mindset about it? If not, how can you change it?

Your child’s prior life experiences contribute to reading comprehension. Consider yourself assembling furniture. When you’ve previously put together furniture, that experience helps you anticipate assembling the new piece. Every time your child learns or experiences something new they make connections and store it to use later when encountering new material. Thus, what type of varying experiences or knowledge are you giving your child?

The Text

The text or books your child reads contributes to his or her understanding. Like the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, you don’t want the text your child reads to be too easy or too hard, but just right. Find out your elementary age child’s Lexile level and pick books within that range. Learn more at lexile.com or talk to your local librarian.

The Task of Reading

The act of reading is multi-dimensional and includes quickly sounding out words, reading speed, and vocabulary. If your child is reading aloud to you and mispronounces words, only correct the words that change the meaning.  Using a book at your child’s Lexile level, simultaneous read aloud with your child to build reading speed. Stop periodically and take turns describing what each person is picturing in their mind as visualizing helps with comprehension.  Teach your child a new vocabulary word each week and practice using it during the week.

If you want to increase your child reading comprehension, allocate sufficient time to work on it, read with your child, provide varied life experiences, and work on skills.  If you need a specialist, just reach out. (561) 625 4125

How Do I Improve My Child’s Reading Comprehension?

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High school reading is tough stuff.  I recently worked with a high school age student having reading comprehension difficulties.  She could read fluently and sound out words without difficulty but did not seem to understand what she read.  As she put it, “My mind wanders and then I start thinking about other things.”  We all do this to some extent but when it starts to interfere with test grades then it becomes a problem.  So what could she do?

As it turns out my testing showed she also had a weaker short term and working memory.  Thus, even though she could read and even concentrate at times, she had troubles remembering.  She explained, “My memory is not strong so I have to write things down.  That’s why I can do ok with vocabulary because I can write it down.”  At that point I knew a great reading comprehension strategy for her to learn was the RAP reading comprehension strategy.

The RAP strategy is one that is researched based and was shown to work.  Here is how RAP works.
R- read a page/ paragraph
A- ask yourself the main idea and important details
P- put them in your own words

I knew this strategy would work for this teenager because when she stopped to ask herself the main idea, she could write it down in her own words.  This straightforward three step strategy is all she needed because it broke the chapter into small parts.  No longer was is viewed as one super long chapter but as short sections that allowed for breaks. Now, she is able to take the information she wrote down and use it to study.  I recommended she use the written information to generate possible test questions.   If she had a list of key terms to remember they become obvious and she can use a memory strategy to remember and recall the terms.

Sure, this strategy takes time to apply because it slows you down and makes you think about your thinking.  But, it works! This teenager could also take part in the intensive Cogmed working memory training program.  This is a computer based working memory training program that she could complete at home under her parents supervision and that of a Cogmed coach.  This would help strengthen her underlying weakness that is contributing to her mind wandering and decreased reading comprehension.

She has a promising future ahead of her.  If your child has reading comprehension problems let me check it out and help you know how to help your child.