Reading comprehension goes far beyond schooling and remains one of the essential skills to develop in your children.
Children with strong comprehension can deduce what they read by combining reading with thinking and reasoning. It takes practice, time, and patience to develop reading comprehension skills.
Use these four tips to help your children improve their reading comprehension at home.
1. Daily Reading Practice: Make reading part of your daily routine with your children even after they have learnt to read by themselves. This allows you to model the cognitive steps required to comprehend what is read.
2. Check for Understanding: Ask key comprehension questions periodically while reading, not only enables you to see if your children understand what is being read but also teaches them what questions they should be asking themselves.
For example:
- Before: "Look at the Cover & Title! What do you think this book will be about?"
- During: "What just happened? What do you think will happen next?"
- After: "Can you summarise the book? What did you like about it? What other books does it remind you of?"
3. Make connections: While reading aloud with your children, share experiences you have had that relate to the story and have them share theirs. Not only does this build an interest in reading, but it grounds them in the idea that there is something familiar and shared in the act of reading.
4. Create a visual: Help your children visualise by describing the scene, characters, and plot. You can even ask them what they envision and have them draw in pencil, pen, markers, or coloured pencils. This will engage them to create their own story, which helps to give a clearer understanding of what is happening.
Source: https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/comprehension