The joy of reading rests on understanding what we read. That’s where reading comprehension comes in! As your child develops their reading skills, it’s important to make sure they understand what they read. Reading aloud with your child, talking about what you read, and asking questions can help your child to develop reading comprehension skills. While it may feel tempting to focus entirely on phonics instruction as your child is learning how to read, simultaneously developing reading comprehension skills is key. Parents can play a big role in supporting these skills at home.
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what you read. As a beginning reader, your child starts to decode—or read—words by using their knowledge of letter sounds. When your child’s brain is engaged in decoding, they can have a hard time understanding what they are reading at the same time. As children’s reading skills progress, they have more brain space to focus on meaning.
Comprehension skills extend beyond just understanding the meaning of what you read. Readers with strong comprehension will also be able to make real-life connections with the text, comprehend more complex text structures, and build their vocabulary. As your child grows as a reader, they are able to focus on higher-order thinking skills like critical thinking and analysis. But it all starts with ensuring your child has a basic understanding of what they read, then layering on these thinking skills.
Throughout their school years and for the rest of their lives, children need to be able to understand what they read. As children grow, the academic focus shifts heavily to using reading to learn new information. If children don’t have strong comprehension skills, they may struggle as they move through middle school, high school, college, and beyond.
That’s why reading comprehension skills are so important. Without them, children may not be able to access the information they need to learn about other subjects. When comprehension is a struggle, reading intervention strategies may be needed.
But it’s not just about academic success. By developing strong reading comprehension skills, children are also able to develop an awareness of the world outside their door. Through reading, children can learn about a range of new ideas, experiences, peoples, and cultures. Reading can truly open the door to the world.
Word recognition skills are developed alongside comprehension, as each supports the other. If your child understands what they are reading about, it’s likely that they will have an easier time decoding a new word, because they can predict what it might be.
Building habits and routines around reading comprehension can support your child throughout their academic career. Even after your child has become a fluent reader, make sure to keep discussing books together. By regularly talking about what you read, you can support your child’s engagement and build a culture of reading.
Talking about what you are reading together is just one way to make reading fun. In addition to discussing books, try some creative reading comprehension activities to bring texts to life.
As your child becomes a more fluent reader, you may wonder how their reading comprehension skills are developing. You don’t need to do any formal assessments to check to see if your child understands what they are reading. Instead, pay close attention when you engage your child in the reading comprehension strategies described above.
Notice how your child summarizes or retells a text. If your child understands the main points and can share details or answer questions about what they read, their comprehension is likely on track. Noticing the types of questions your child asks about a text can also give you information about their comprehension. If they ask basic questions that could already be answered through the text, go back to the text and find the answer together. If they ask higher-order questions that involve analysis or inferences, this shows they have a basic understanding of the text and are able to build on that understanding through their questions.
If you notice that your child is struggling with reading comprehension, this may be a clue that they need to focus more on word recognition skills. Consider focusing on reading comprehension skills with books that you read aloud to your child, while having your child focus on word recognition when they decode books on their own. It can be challenging for beginning readers to focus on decoding and comprehension at the same time, so splitting up these tasks can be effective.
If your child continues to have trouble comprehending books that you read aloud, they may have difficulty processing auditory information (information that they hear). Invite your child to decode the words you read along with you. Pause after small chunks of information and model how to retell what happened. Encourage your child to begin to retell smaller bits of the story on their own. Get in the habit of regularly asking your child to retell, or summarize, the information they’ve read. Of course, if you continue to notice your child struggling, be sure to talk to their teacher and seek other resources that can help.
Good readers are fluent readers, because they can read quickly, accurately, and sound as if they were speaking aloud instead of reading.
Reading is an essential skill that lets us unlock meaning from written words.
The ability to identify and work with the smallest units of sound in spoken words.
Phonics teaches children how letters in print represent individual sounds in spoken language.
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Phonics skills can also help readers translate speech to print.
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