6
Essential Skills for Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension can be challenging for kids.
Kids must master several key skills to fully understand what
they’re reading.
There are ways to help struggling readers build these skills
at home and at school.
Some people think of the act of reading as a straightforward
task that’s easy to master. It’s a complex process that draws on many different
skills. Together, these skills lead to the goal of reading:
reading comprehension or understanding what’s been read.
Reading
comprehension is a challenge for some kids with learning and
attention issues. That’s especially true of kids with dyslexia. Knowing the
skills involved, and which ones your child struggles with, can help you get the
right support.
Here are six essential skills needed for reading
comprehension, and what might help struggling readers improve this skill.
1.
Decoding
Decoding is a vital step in the reading process. Kids use
this skill to sound out words they’ve heard before but haven’t seen written
out. The ability to do that is the foundation for other reading skills.
Decoding relies on an early language skill called phonemic
awareness. (This skill is part of an even broader skill called phonological
awareness.) Phonemic awareness enables kids to hear individual sounds in words
(known as phonemes). It also allows them to “play” with sounds at the word and
syllable level.
Decoding also relies on the ability to connect the individual
sounds to letters. For instance, to read the word sun, kids must know that the
letter s makes the /s/ sound. Grasping the connection between a letter (or
group of letters) and the sounds they typically make is an important step
toward “sounding out” words.
What can
help: Most kids pick up the broad skill of phonological awareness
naturally, by being exposed to books, songs and rhymes. But some don’t. In
fact, one of the early signs of reading issues is trouble with rhyming,
counting syllables or identifying the first sound in a word.
The best way to help kids with these skills is through
specific instruction and practice. Kids must be taught how to identify and work
with sounds. Parents can also build phonological awareness at home through
activities like word games and reading to their child.
2.
Fluency
To read fluently, kids need to instantly recognize words,
including ones they can’t sound out. Fluency speeds up the rate at which they
can read and understand text. It’s also important when kids encounter irregular
words, like of and the, which can’t be sounded out.
Sounding out or decoding every word can take a lot of effort.
Word recognition is the ability to recognize whole words instantly by sight,
without sounding them out.
When kids can read quickly and without making too many
errors, they are “fluent” readers.
Fluent readers read smoothly at a good pace. They group words
together to help with meaning, and they use the proper tone in their voice when
reading aloud. Reading fluency is essential for good reading comprehension.
What can
help: Word recognition can be a big obstacle for kids. Average
readers need to see a word four to 14 times before it becomes a “sight word”
they automatically recognize.
As with other reading skills, kids need lots of specific
instruction and practice to improve word recognition.
Lots of kids struggle with reading fluency. The main way to
help build this skill is through practice reading books. It’s important to pick
out books that are at the right level of difficulty for kids.
3.
Vocabulary
To understand what you’re reading, you need to understand
most of the words in the text. Having a strong vocabulary is a key component of
reading comprehension. Students can learn vocabulary through instruction. But
they typically learn the meaning of words through everyday experience and by
reading.
What can
help: The more words kids are exposed to, the greater their
vocabulary becomes. You can help build your child’s vocabulary by having
frequent conversations on a variety of topics. Try to include new words and
ideas. Telling jokes and playing word games is a fun way to build this skill.
Reading together every day also helps improve vocabulary.
When reading aloud, stop at new words and define them. But also encourage your
child to read alone. Even without hearing a definition of a new word, your
child can use context to help figure it out.
Teachers can help in several ways. They can carefully choose
interesting words to teach and then give explicit instruction (instruction that
is specialized and direct). They can engage students in conversation. And they
can make learning vocabulary fun by playing word games in class.
4.
Sentence Construction and Cohesion
Understanding how sentences are built might seem like a
writing skill. So, might connecting ideas within and between sentences, which
is called cohesion. But these skills are important for reading comprehension as
well.
Knowing how ideas link up at the sentence level helps kids
get meaning from passages and entire texts. It also leads to something called
coherence, or the ability to connect ideas to other ideas in an overall piece
of writing.
What can
help:
Explicit instruction can teach kids the basics of sentence construction.
Teachers can also work with students on connecting two or more thoughts,
through both writing and reading.
5. Reasoning
and Background Knowledge
Most readers relate what they’ve read to what they know. So, it’s important for kids to have background
or prior knowledge about the world when they read. They also need to be able to
“read between the lines” and extract meaning even when it’s not literally
spelled out.
Take this example. A child is reading a story about a poor
family in the 1930s. Having knowledge about the Great Depression can provide
insight into what’s happening in the story. 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.
Expose your child to as much as possible and talk about what
you’ve learned from experiences you’ve had together and separately. 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.
6.
Working Memory and Attention
These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known
as executive function. They’re different but closely related.
When kids read, attention allows them to take in information
from the text. Working memory allows them to hold on to that information and
use it to gain meaning and build knowledge from what they’re reading. Working
memory and attention are part of executive function.
The ability to self-monitor while reading is also tied to
that. Kids need to be able to recognize when they don’t understand something.
Then they need to stop, go back and re-read to clear up any confusion they may
have.
What can
help: There are many ways you can help improve your child’s
working memory. Skill builders don’t have to feel like work, either. There are
several games and everyday activities that can build working memory without
your child even knowing it!
To help increase your child’s attention, look for reading
material that’s interesting or motivating. Encourage your child to stop and
re-read when something isn’t clear. And demonstrate how you “think aloud” when
you read to make sure what you’re reading makes sense.
In conclusion, when kids struggle with one or more of these
skills, they can have trouble fully understanding what they read. Reading
everyday is the KEY TO SUCCESS!!
Enjoy,
Ms. Nora Sierra
EC Assistant Principal
Discovery School
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