Why is comprehension important for children

The research out there is endless -- every child requires daily reading at home to succeed. Check for Understanding : Whether you are reading, or your child is reading, ask key comprehension questions, periodically, while reading.

Doing this not only helps you see if they are understanding what is being read, but it also teaches them what questions they should be asking themselves as they read. What do you think this book will be about? During Stop periodically every paragraph or page and ask: -"Who?

As you and your children read aloud, share experiences you have had that relate to the story and have them share theirs. Not only does this build an interest in reading, but it grounds them in the idea that there is something common and shared in the act of reading, and it invests them in the story.

Create a visual. Sometimes children have a hard time visualizing what they just read. Help your children visualize by describing the scene, characters, and plot. You can even ask them what they are visualizing and have them draw in pencil, pen, markers, or colored pencils. They will be involved and creating their own story, which will help them get a clearer understanding of what is happening.

Make inferences and predictions. Making inferences and predictions goes hand-and-hand with asking questions. Inferring is the ability to take clues and given knowledge from a text and conclude what will happen next. It is important to go back and re-read as soon as your child seems confused! Make sure you are tracking your child's comprehension progress.

Our teachers encourage students to interact with the text and to connect the text to their own lives. They ask questions which require students to think critically and make deductions from the text.

Parents, how often does your child read? What techniques have you found to be effective to help your child develop his or her comprehension skills? Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Toggle navigation. Why is comprehension important? Reading Fluency Have you child practice reading aloud to increase reading fluency. Practice Makes Perfect Practice is key when it comes to perfecting comprehension skills.

How A Grade Ahead Can Help Your Child Whether your child excels at reading comprehension or is struggling with the concepts, an after-school enrichment program is an option to consider to further develop these skills.

Teachers can encourage students to go beyond literally recounting the story to drawing their own conclusions about it.

Teachers can ask readers to make a prediction about a story based on the title and any other clues that are available, such as illustrations. Teachers can later ask students to find text that supports or contradicts their predictions.

Asking students different types of questions requires that they find the answers in different ways, for example, by finding literal answers in the text itself or by drawing on prior knowledge and then inferring answers based on clues in the text.

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information. The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about. Teaching these structures can help students recognize relationships between ideas and the overall intent of the text.

A summary briefly captures the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea. Students must understand the text in order to write a good summary that is more than a repetition of the text itself.

After all of the students have read the text, the teacher leads a discussion of the questions and answers. Printable K-W-L chart blank.

Graphic organizers provide visual representations of the concepts in expository text. Representing ideas and relationships graphically can help students understand and remember them.

Examples of graphic organizers are:. Tree diagrams that represent categories and hierarchies. Tables that compare and contrast data.

Time-driven diagrams that represent the order of events. Teaching students how to develop and construct graphic organizers will require some modeling, guidance, and feedback. Teachers should demonstrate the process with examples first before students practice doing it on their own with teacher guidance and eventually work independently. Honig, B. Diamond, and L. Take this example: A child is reading a story about a poor family in the s.

The child can use that background knowledge to make inferences and draw conclusions. What can help: Your child can build knowledge through reading, conversations, movies and TV shows, and art. Life experience and hands-on activities also build knowledge. Help your child make connections between new knowledge and existing knowledge. And ask open-ended questions that require thinking and explanations.

You can also read a teacher tip on using animated videos to help your child make inferences. These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known as executive function. When kids read, attention allows them to take in information from the text. The ability to self-monitor while reading is also tied to that. Then they need to stop, go back, and re-read to clear up any confusion they may have.

There are a number of games and everyday activities that can build working memory without kids even knowing it. For example, some kids may like graphic novels. When kids struggle with one or more of these skills, they can have trouble fully understanding what they read. Find out how to tell if your child has difficulty with reading comprehension. Learn about what can cause trouble with reading in kids. But some kids need extra support and encouragement to make progress.

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