My child has below average comprehension skills, what can I do?

You may have heard from your child’s teacher or allied healthcare professionals that they have lower than average comprehension skills. There are ways you can take matters into your own hands to help them improve. Here’s a guide to assist your elementary schooler in boosting their comprehension abilities:

1. Read Together: Spend quality time reading with your child. Choose age-appropriate books and take turns reading aloud. Discuss the story as you go along, asking questions about what’s happening and encouraging your child to make predictions about what might happen next.
2. Ask Questions: After reading a passage or story, ask your child questions to check their understanding. You can even stop after every sentence or two to ask a question. Start with simple questions, like “Who were the main characters?” or “What was the problem in the story?” Then, gradually move to more complex questions that require critical thinking, such as “Why do you think the character made that choice?” or “What would you do in that situation?”
3. Summarize: Encourage your child to summarize what they’ve read in their own words. This helps them practice identifying the main idea and important details of a story. You can also model summarizing by providing your own summary of the story and discussing it together.
4. Make Connections: Help your child make connections between the text and their own experiences, other books they’ve read, or the world around them. Encourage them to relate the events or characters in the story to things they know or have experienced.
5. Visualize: Encourage your child to visualize the story in their mind as they read. Ask them to describe what they see, hear, and feel as they imagine the events unfolding. Drawing pictures or acting out scenes from the story can also help solidify comprehension.
6. Use Graphic Organizers: Introduce your child to graphic organizers like story maps, character webs, or plot diagrams. You can download free resources on the internet, or ask your child’s teacher to provide you with a graphic organizer that they would recommend. These tools can help them organize their thoughts and understand the structure of a story.
7. Predict and Infer: Encourage your child to make predictions about what will happen next in the story based on clues from the text. Also, help them infer the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters by analyzing their actions and dialogue.
8. Encourage Active Listening: Practice active listening skills by engaging in conversations with your child about various topics. Encourage them to listen carefully, ask questions, and respond thoughtfully.
9. Expand Vocabulary: Introduce new words to your child and encourage them to use context clues to figure out their meanings. Discuss synonyms and antonyms, and encourage your child to use new words in their own writing and speaking.
10. Provide Opportunities for Independent Reading: Encourage your child to read independently for pleasure. Choose books that interest them and allow them to practice their comprehension skills at their own pace.

By incorporating these strategies into your child’s daily routine, you can help them develop strong comprehension skills that will serve them well throughout their academic and personal lives.

For more help, check out the link to my book “Small Stories for Big Language Skills” below.

For more inspiration, view our other blog posts Signs of delayed language skills, and ways to help develop language skills, Experience Gifts for Toddlers Around Tampa Bay, and Crayola Create & Play App