Skills Needed for Comprehension

Here are the major skills your child needs to understand what they read.

Help your child read quickly.
Help your child start to read by reading the first part to your child or with them.
Allow for short but frequent breaks to stretch or move around.
Teach your child how to look at the table of contents. Teach them how to skim chapters for key words. Help your child answer questions at the end of the chapter.
Have your child read about areas in which they have strong interest. For example, let them read sport stories or biographies of someone they like. Fiction about growing up may be interesting to them.

Processing. Children must understand what they read and then combine it with what they already know.
Helpful Hints:

Show your child how to make outlines of lengthy things they need to read.
Show your child how to underline or highlight key passages.
Have your child talk out loud, summarizing a paragraph or page.
Have your child write down the main point of each passage they read on a post-it note or index card.

Memory. The longer the reading passage is, the more is held in memory.
Helpful Hints:
First, children need to learn to read quickly.
Show your child how to scan each chapter before reading. For example, have them scan the text for introductions and headings. They can look at the bold face and italic type.
Encourage your child to highlight or underline as they read. Teach them to re-read information that they have underlined.
Teach your child to write down important points or unknown vocabulary words as they read.