Literacy: Comprehension Skills

Reading comprehension skills enhance the pleasure and effectiveness of reading. For your child, reading comprehension skills will have an impact on most subjects across the curriculum. A skilled reader does not just read but they understand what they read and interact with the story. It is possible for a child to be able to read quite fluently but not understand what they have read or the context of the story.

Your child will be encouraged to read in both in school and at home for homework every day. They may have a particular reader that they use, which is often a compilation of stories or they may be reading from a novel.

Helping Them Become a Skilled Reader

There are many ways that you can help your child to become a skilled reader and to help them with their reading homework. The following are some ideas that you can use:

• Preview the story - Before starting to read a book, discuss the cover with your child and the name of the author. Ask your child to try to predict what may happen in the book. Preview the characters that are in the book and briefly summarise the plot for your child or read the blurb at the back of the book.
• Use clues in the context to encourage your child to predict what will happen next. There may be more than just the text; there may be pictures, graphs or headings that can also provide clues that will help your child to predict.
• Question your child about the main idea, message, or plot of the text and discuss it with them clarifying any parts of the text that they may be confused about. Don’t forget the who, what, where, when, why questions, describe the characters, locations, events, and problems.
• Connect the events in the text to their own experience – for instance if you are reading about a girl who went abroad, talk about your child’s own experience of going abroad if it applies to them.

There are plenty of ways other than helping your child with their reading homework to help improve their comprehension skills.

• Try to help your child develop a broad background of reading. Look at newspapers, magazines, and books other than those studied at school.
• Depending on the age and reading ability of your child you can help them to learn the structure of paragraphs and how they have a beginning, middle and end.
• Reading a book or story more than once will help your child develop a deeper understanding of it – highlight, summarize and review parts of the story.
• Build a good vocabulary – encourage your child to make use of dictionaries and thesauruses when doing both reading and writing homework.

If your child is in constant need of homework help it may be an indicator that they need help with their reading comprehension skills. If you feel your child may be struggling with their comprehension skills do not be afraid to discuss it with your child’s teacher. A teacher will have a better understanding of where a child should be at, in terms of their age and standard.