The habit of reading can be a lifetime gift for your child as it helps in nurturing minds and improving comprehension skill. Helping your child in developing reading is a great life skill and an investment for which you and your child can reap profits throughout life.
When students have trouble reading or do not have a habit of reading, it can affect their performances which can indirectly affect their self-confidence and may lead to poor grades.
But do not worry, even if your child has reading difficulties, they can be improved with regular practice. As you read further, there are some tips in the article mentioned that can help in improving children’s reading skills and comprehension. So let’s get started.
What is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension is the ability to read and understand the meaning of words or sentences.
Why are Reading Comprehension Skills Important?
Good reading comprehension is essential as it helps readers to think, draw conclusions, and understand what is important and what is a fact. Without comprehension, there is no meaning in reading. Comprehension engages readers and helps them in becoming active readers.
Do you know reading can reduce stress levels by a whopping 68%?
Reading 30 minutes a day can also prolong lifespan by two years.
Reading and understanding comprehension is both enjoyable and useful and has amazing benefits for our health and prosperity.
But 41% of parents complain that their children do not enjoy reading, which is a huge percentage of kids and it’s a serious issue that every parent and teacher needs to think through to find the solution.
What does the Research Say About Ways Parents Can Help Their Children With Reading?
As per Research, children learn more through observation. So in order to put them into the habit of reading, the people around them should become their role models.
If children see their elders, parents, and teachers reading newspapers, books, etc., then they will automatically develop those habits or try to mimic their behaviour.
What Can Parents Do to Help Their Child in the Learning-To-Read Process?
So how can we help our children become better readers?
Here are some reading strategies that parents and teachers can use to boost reading and comprehension skills.
1. Find Books They’ll Like
Most of the time children do not like what they read, so it is essential to provide them with the book or topic they love.
73% of students said they would like to read more if they could find books they liked.
So provide them with the books they love. For eg:- (favourite heroes, cartoon characters, mentors and books on topics they are interested in like technology, science fiction) The secret to becoming a better reader is through regular practice.
2. Read Aloud
Always ask your child to read aloud as it helps them gain a better understanding of what they are reading.
3. Skimming Technique
Quickly skimming the headings of a book is a great way to understand what the reading is about which also creates interest in readers to know more and read more.
This technique can be used when you are short on time to know the content of the book or subject but it is always recommended to read everything to get a deeper level of understanding. So always ask your child to use the skimming technique to create interest in them for book reading.
4. Re-Read Sections that are Confusing
It’s natural to get confused while reading the context, so always ask your child to re-read words, sentences, and sections that they think are confusing as it will help them to have clarity. This also ensures that they are not reading for the sake of it but reading deeply.
5. Use a Ruler or Finger to Follow Along
Some children forget their line or place while reading, and some have dyslexia where they struggle with separating lines of text and sentences so using a ruler or finger can be the best way to keep them on track and read easily.
6. Write Down Unfamiliar Words
When we read something, we encounter unfamiliar words many times. so it’s natural your child might encounter the same. So always ask them to write those words and then search for them in the dictionary to understand their meaning.
Ask them to do it then and there as it will help to connect and understand sentences, and content. You can also ask them to make another sentence from those unfamiliar words which they have learnt now to get a deeper level of understanding.
7. Discuss After Reading
When your child has finished reading, ask the question or discuss what they have read or learned from the books.
This activity will help your child to read thoroughly and understand the content instead of reading for the sake of reading. It will also help you to know if they have understood the content or not so that you can take further steps to improve reading comprehension. You can also know their thinking style.
Get involved in the discussion, understand their thinking styles and help them understand things if necessary.
8. Recap and Summarise the Main Points
After reading, one more activity you have to ask your child is to recap or summarise or make note of the main point from the subject they covered or books they have read.
This activity will make sure that they have understood the gest, are able to remember things and are able to explain in their own words.
9. Encourage the Child to Ask Questions
Encourage your child to ask questions if they don’t understand things. Ask them to pause and reflect on what they have read and answer their questions. All these small steps will create more interest in them to read and understand.
10. Use Different Formats
Every child is different; some are natural readers and some need little push to create that interest in them. Know what makes them curious or creates interest in them.
For eg:- Pictures in books, reading on a tablet, audiobooks etc
11. Identify Reading Problems
Notice what makes your child struggle during reading. You can even consult the counsellor or child specialist in order to figure out the real issue and then take steps to solve it.
12. Get a Reading Tutor
As a parent you can improve your child’s reading skills by scheduling one hour daily for reading. Giving them access to books, tablets, and audiobooks on their interesting topics and with regular practice, they will become natural readers. But if you fail to give them enough time then getting them a tutor is the best way to give that extra boost in improving their reading skills.
6 Reading Strategies You Can Use to Improve Your Child’s Comprehension Skills
Cognitive strategies can be helpful in improving your child’s comprehension skills as it helps mental processes to extract and construct meaning from content read and the knowledge gained stays for a long term.
1. Making Connections
Teachers of Japan school ask students to make connections while reading.
For eg:- Making connections between the text and their own personal experiences and understandings. Students need to ask themselves how the text is related to something in their life or to the world or how it is related to another text that they already know.
2. Predicting
Students are asked to take hints/clues from the text (words and/or pictures) and then combine them with their own knowledge and experiences to predict what will happen next.
3. Questioning
Here students ask various questions and answer them in order to deepen their understanding. Students need to ask who, what, when, where, how, and why to identify any gaps in their comprehension of the text.
4. Monitoring Comprehension
In this strategy, students monitor their reading, reflect on and assess their understanding as they progress.
They should ask questions like “Does it make sense?” or “Do I need to read this again to understand it better?”. This strategy helps in identifying hurdles or barriers if any.
5. Visualising
Here students have to create a mental map or visualise the situation or character they have read. It is one of the best strategies where students use all 5 senses to visualise the text they have read and understand it, thus improving their reading comprehension skills.
6. Summarising
Here, students have to summarise the things from the text they have read.
For eg:- Main topic or purpose, keywords list or phrase or quote.
Bottom Line
Now we know the benefit of reading and its important role in helping your child to become successful in school and future life. So parents must take initiative to develop the reading habits in children from childhood and regularly help them in improving their reading comprehension.
