Signs Your Child May Be Struggling With Reading Comprehension

 Signs Your Child May Be Struggling With Reading Comprehension 

In our last blog, we dove into what Reading Comprehension is, its importance and briefly established one sign that your child may be struggling with Reading Comprehension. 

There are many signs that may hint that your child is struggling with Reading Comprehension, but how can you know? 

Ask A Question! - after reading a story or paragraph, ask your child a question. Start off with simple and fun questions just to test whether your child has grasped the context of the passage or not. Of course the types of questions asked will vary based on your child’s age and reading level. 

For example, imagine a scenario where your child reads the short paragraph below. 

  ‘Jack and Jan are smiling. They are on their way to the park. Jack walks quickly and so does Jan. As they approach the park, they begin to run. Jack runs towards the slides and Jan rushes to the swing. Both children laugh as they play.’

Here are some easy questions you can ask: 

• Who are the characters  in the story? 

• What are they doing? 

• Where are they going ? 

• How are they feeling? 

While these are only a few, it allows your child to begin to express their understanding of what is taking place in the passage read. 

It is important to start with easier questions first, especially if your child is a struggling reader, and then gradually increase the difficulty of the questions. 

Retell the story - after reading a story or paragraph, have your child retell the story in their own words. Being able to complete this activity is usually a good indication of whether your child understood what was read or not. 

Retelling involves remembering a story's incidents in chronological order, beginning with the beginning and ending with the end. Retelling is a technique for enhancing comprehension, which is the process of comprehending what is read and expanding on the knowledge acquired by relating it to other stories or actual events. Retelling is a technique used to assess a student's understanding of a particular story. It can be a powerful tool for both testing and enhancing comprehension (Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner, 2014, p. 268). You learn how your child is processing the material read in a text during a retelling. During retelling, a child’s comprehension of a text can be monitored and assessed.

These are two simple and fun ways to gauge your child’s Reading Comprehension skills. 

At The Caribbean Academy for Reading Intervention and Development, we offer an Individual Reading Assistance Program that assists struggling readers to build skills in: 

• Sight words and high-frequency words 

• Sounds recognition 

• Reading comprehension 

• Letter and word recognition 

• Phonics and phonemic awareness 

Our Reading Assistance Programme is designed to teach the foundational skills of reading to children with significant academic challenges, empowering them to achieve grade-level proficiency. Our dedicated tutors help struggling readers understand the basic mechanics of reading and help them develop critical reading skills that will help them develop a lifelong love of reading. 

Target Audience: Struggling readers between the ages of 5 years to 10 years. 

Persons interested in our Individual Reading Assistance Program can contact us at 1-868-474-9819. 

Chrystal Murray has a passion for imparting knowledge and adding value to the lives of others.

She has been an educator for over 14 years. She holds a B.A. Degree in History and Education from the University of the West Indies (UWI). She also possesses several professional certificates in Understanding Dyslexia, Successful Educational Strategies for Children with Special Needs, and Supporting Multiple Abilities through Differentiation just to name a few. She is also certified in Counselling Youth and Children and Parenting the Adolescent. Chrystal is the Founder and Principal of two academic institutions, the Caribbean Ivy League Academy and the Caribbean Academy for Reading Intervention and Development. She founded the Caribbean Academy for Reading Intervention and Development where she works assiduously with children who have reading challenges. She also uses this platform to motivate, inspire and help build confidence in the children who are in her care.

Chrystal Murray 

Reading Interventionist 

1-868-474-9819