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Reading Comprehension Develops Through Active Reading

Reading without comprehension is like eating without swallowing – you taste the food, but your body doesn’t benefit from any of the nutrients it provides.

For this reason, it is critically important that parents not only practice reading skills, but also focus on comprehension. To accomplish this, parents need to focus on specific skills before, during and after the reading session.

What Parents Need to Know
Reading comprehension skills are important at every age. Before children are taught to read, they learn to connect spoken words with their meanings. As children later develop into accurate, fluent readers, they read to learn for personal enjoyment.

Success in reading is more than just being able to identify letters and words – a child needs to understand what he is reading. If a child is unable to comprehend what he has read, he’s going to experience feelings of frustration and disappointment and will avoid reading altogether. And, a child who experiences difficulties with reading comprehension will ultimately have problems in other subjects as well.

What Parents Can Do
Fortunately, parents can nurture and build comprehension by making each reading experience an active one. Parents can help improve their child’s comprehension by reading with him or her for 10-15 minutes each day—one hour per week—and discussing what has been read. A competent reader will find the meaning in what he has read or heard, remember details about the story and be able to retell it.

To help children become fluent and reflective readers, the experts at Sylvan Learning Center, the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages and skill levels, offer tips to help parents nurture comprehension before, during and after the reading process:
Before Reading
• For younger children, take a “picture walk.” Point to the pictures in the book and discuss what is happening in the pictures and what she thinks the story will be about.
• For older children, preview the text before starting to read more complex material. Skim the material quickly for its general contents, length, structure of the text and type of information.
• Determine the purpose for reading the material and what should be learned or remembered by reading it.
During Reading
• Stop frequently throughout the story to discuss what is happening and what he thinks will happen next. This is a great way to test your child’s reading comprehension.
• Have him try to predict future ideas and questions. Ask what clues helped him make that prediction.
• Encourage her to ask about words or parts of the story that are difficult for her to understand.
• For longer texts or chapters, encourage your child to take notes, underline or highlight important sentences or phrases.
• Encourage her to visualize the story as it unfolds.
• After completing each paragraph or section, ask your child to write a brief summary or outline of important information.
After Reading
• Discuss any questions your child has about the story.
• Younger children should be able to answer questions and discuss the plot line and characters in the story. Ask her which character she liked the most or to tell you about her favorite part of the story.
• Help him compare the story line to his own life or other books or movies.
• Summarize and review the important ideas of the text. She should be able to determine what's important and what's not.
• Take time to think about what he knew before the reading and what he learned.
• Ask questions about the story from the perspective of another character.

How Sylvan Can Help
Sylvan offers a variety of tools for parents searching for ways to nurture their child’s reading behaviors - including grade-specific tips, ideas for reading at home and helpful hints for raising enthusiastic readers.