Two Easy Ways to Help Your Child With Reading Comprehension

One of the primary struggles in reading is comprehension. There are two easy ways you can help your child develop comprehension skills. The first way is called foretelling. In foretelling, the child will study the book cover, title and any introductory pages containing pictures. Then, discuss what he thinks about the content of the book. After each page, chapter or section ask the child what he thinks will happen next. It's ok if he is wrong. The key is to help your child develop contextual and visual cues about the text. Typically, children do not embrace this in the beginning. You will have to lead them through some ideas.

Another way of helping your child develop reading comprehension skills is through retelling. In retelling, your child will tell you what has happened in the story. You can retell from the whole book for general ideas. However, I think the most effective is to combine whole-book retelling with retelling of a page or chapter. This will only work if you are familiar with the book. You want to help your child discern important facts and concepts.

For an example, I will use foretelling and retelling from the book, "Barry The Bravest Saint Bernard" by Lynn Hall. Looking at the cover I see a big dog, snowy mountains and a man being pulled out of the snow by a dog. What is the dogs name? What is he doing? What is the man doing? Where are they? If your child is hesitant to answer, start with easier questions. Do you see snow? Are they at the beach? Is the dog mean? Is the man happy? Next, after you read the first few pages ask some conceptual questions related to foretelling. What do you think Barry will do to help people? Are the robbers going to hurt the monks? Next, you can use retelling. Tell me about Werner and Barry. Tell me about where they live. Why do the monks have so many dogs? Anything you can do to get your child to discuss concepts of the book.

In the beginning, this may be a little difficult for you. However, you must remember these skills will help your child develop cues to help with reading for a lifetime. These cues will help them in testing and personal reading. I use these strategies with every child I tutor during each session. Even if children have strong comprehension, it is still a worthwhile activity.