What is reading comprehension? Comprehension is a process and it begins during pre-reading as children activate their background knowledge and preview the text, and it continues to develop as children read, respond, explore and apply their reading (Tompkins, 2017). Parents have an important part in their child’s literacy development. Since the pandemic, children need support in reading more than ever before. You do not have to be a teacher to be able to help your child increase their understanding of reading. The following can help your child with reading comprehension.
Read Alouds
One of the most important things that a parents can do is to read aloud together with their child. Reading aloud is crucial for literacy development. When children listen to a parent or teacher read, they could be exposed to a higher language level than what they can actually read. They could also be exposed to vocabulary and language patters that are not part of their everyday speech (Reading Rockets, 2016). Children of any age and any reading level benefit from being read to by an experienced reader.
Activating Background Knowledge
Parents should discuss prior experiences that your child has had with the topic. When children have a lot of previous experience with a topic, they will have better comprehension about what they are reading. It’s important for children to make a connection between the prior experiences and the text they are reading. Since parents are very familiar with their children’s background knowledge, they can help their child make these connections.
Making Predictions
Whether you the parent or the child is reading, making predictions about what will happen next in the story is important. Children can make predictions before they begin reading and while they are reading the text. The parent can help the child make these predictions by having a discussion with the child about previous experiences with the topic and by having the child search for clues in the text.
Monitoring
It’s important to help your child monitor their understanding of what they are reading. Parents can encourage their children to frequently ask themselves wether they understand what they are reading. Ask your child questions about the text and how they might use the information that have just read. Wether the parent is reading or the child is reading, make sure to discuss the meaning of unknown words. Reading is great way to expand a child’s vocabulary.
Inferences
Help your child read between the lines (draw inferences). This is important because inferring requires your child to combine what they are reading with what they know from previous experiences and then apply it to what they are actually reading. The following is an example of how a parent can explain inferences to their child: It has been raining all day and some cars are wet and some are not wet, we infer that the cars that are dry have been parked in the garage. (Information from Text + Life Experiences = Inferences)
The parent can model inferring at home by saying:
My clues from the text are………because my prior knowledge is ………so I can infer that……… (forsyth.k12ga.us)
I think that……… because……..
Summarizing
Help your child summarize what they read. Summarizing will help your child remember what they read and improve their overall comprehension. It is important to explain to your child that when they summarize they pick out the most important ideas from the text. Summarizing should be practiced and parent and child can work together picking out the most important ideas from the text.
References
Tompkins, G. (2017). Literacy for the 21st century: a balanced approach. Pearson.