Reading comprehension is understanding what the sentences are conveying on the page. Your child needs to understand the message in a heading and in sentences. But they also need to understand the message in groups of sentences, too, such as paragraphs. If you find your child just isn’t getting the message, then try some of these techniques to help his or her reading comprehension.
Helping with Reading Comprehension
Tutors at Lumen Learning Center are skilled at helping children improve their reading comprehension. But in between tutoring sessions, there are things parents can do to help them better comprehend what they read. Try some of the techniques.
Read Out Loud
By reading out loud the child hears the words when saying them. This helps in understanding the idea the sentences and more difficult words are trying to convey.
Use a Finger
Using a finger to follow along the sentences while reading helps many kids better comprehend large amounts of text on the page. It makes reading smoother and less complicated. Sometimes it is difficult to keep from getting lost in the page in all those sentences. The finger solves that problem.
Discussion
Stop periodically when your child is reading and ask them to explain what this last section meant and the message it was giving. This forces the reader to think about what was just read and explaining it to another person helps them remember it.
Be Supportive
It is important that the parent has a “can do” attitude during reading sessions. Be supportive and find ways to help. Getting angry or punishing the child because he or she isn’t doing it correctly will cause bigger problems. If the child keeps making the same mistakes, have him or her checked for a reading disability. This could be the source of the trouble with reading comprehension and it is not a behavioral issue.
