In the ever-changing educational landscape, one thing remains consistent: reading comprehension is a vital skill for your child's success in school and beyond. A child’s ability to comprehend text has a significant impact on their academic performance and future learning opportunities. However, this essential skill can often pose a challenge for primary and secondary school students.
Fear not, as a parent, you can play a significant role in helping your child improve their reading comprehension skills. With a bit of guidance and a few proven strategies up your sleeve, you can make reading an enriching and rewarding experience for your child. This post will provide you with several research-backed strategies to help your child improve their reading comprehension skills at home.
1. Predicting - Stop and ask, "What will happen next?"
Predicting is about helping your child anticipate what will come next in a story based on what they've read so far. This skill not only maintains their interest but also reinforces their understanding of the narrative. Ask them questions like, "What do you think will happen next?" or "Why do you think the character did that?" Encourage them to base their predictions on evidence from the text. This strategy fosters critical thinking skills and enables children to actively engage with the text ([Reference: Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007)](https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/strategies-that-work)).
2. Questioning - "After reading this, formulate three related questions."
Questioning is a strategy that naturally encourages active reading. Encourage your child to ask questions before, during, and after reading. This helps them to clarify and deepen their understanding of the text. Parents may often find their child pays closer attention to a text, when they know they will be required to come up with a question. Essentially, you're asking the reader to come up with a question they know the answer to and this actively improves their attention. This idea has been extensively researched and endorsed by scholars like K.W. Raphael and P. D. Pearson in their work ([Reference: Raphael, T. E., & Pearson, P. D. (1985)](https://www.jstor.org/stable/20200333)).
3. Identifying Main Ideas and Supporting Details - Play detective!
The ability to identify the main idea and supporting details of a passage is crucial for understanding and summarising text. Encourage your child to note down the primary points and any supporting information or examples. This strategy has been shown to boost reading comprehension ([Reference: Williams, J. P. (2008)](https://www.guilford.com/books/Teaching-Students-to-Make-Writing-Visual-Vivid/Joan-Williams/9781593859823)).
4. Summarising - Make big ideas bite sized!
Summarising is the process of distilling the essential ideas of a text into a concise synopsis. Encouraging your child to regularly summarise what they've read can help them reinforce their understanding and remember the information better ([Reference: National Reading Panel, 2000](https://www1.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf)).
5. Visualising
Visualising involves forming mental images of the text. This strategy engages the child's imagination and helps them connect to the text on a deeper level. Research shows that visualising the story can improve reading comprehension and recall ([Reference: Gambrell, L. B., & Bales, R. J. (1986)](https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED278305)). This doesn't necessarily mean drawing or imagining a picture or scene, draw a mind map instead. As Albert Einstein once said, "If I can't picture it, I can't understand it."
Remember, every child is different, and strategies that work well for one may not work as well for another. Be patient, make reading a fun activity, and incorporate these strategies gradually. Your child's reading comprehension skills didn't develop overnight, and improving them will take time.
But with consistent practice, patience, and the right approach, you can make a significant difference in your child's reading comprehension skills. Here at HEMA Tutorial, we're always here to support you and your child's learning journey.
Happy reading!