Prayas- Make Learning Fun: Comprehension

Comprehend means to understand.

Understanding the text or spoken word is of utmost important for the learner. If the learners can read but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, that reading will be robotic, meaningless as well as purposeless. So first as a parent, teacher or a tutor you need to find out if the child has a problem with comprehending. Can he/she understand what is being read, written or asked? This can be easily found out through the formal assessment methods at school or asking simple questions to the child or you can look for any of the following signs:

You get to hear “huh” or “what” more often from them when being talked to
Has trouble following spoken directions, especially if they’re more than one step
Is easily distracted, especially by background noise or loud and sudden noises
Has trouble with reading and spelling, which involve understanding sounds
Has difficulty with oral (word) math problems
Has trouble following conversations
Has poor musical ability
Has difficulty learning songs or nursery rhymes
Has trouble remembering details of what was read or heard

Do not jump to conclusion if your child has any of the above mentioned signs. Discuss the matter with your pediatrician, school teacher, school counselor as these are the people who have known your child for a long time.

Once you have understood that the child is having difficulty in comprehension you can start helping the child in your own small ways. Making this a big issue to be discussed in front of the child has to be avoided. Take the child in confidence, let him/her know that you understand their problem and are ready to help. This will take away all the resistance they have to learn.

Techniques to improve Comprehension

When students have trouble reading, it can affect their performance in many subjects. Poor reading skills and comprehension can lead to frustration, low self-confidence, and poor grades. But difficulty with reading and with comprehension is something that can be improved with regular practice. By learning to read effectively, your child can build skills that will help improve his or her reading skills and comprehension.

Reading comprehension is the ability to read a sentence and understand its meaning. It is the ability to look at written words and process the meaning or ideas behind them. Reading comprehension is not just understanding a single word or its meaning—it is the ability to recognize words, sentences, and paragraphs and make sense of the overall meaning.

Following are the techniques you can use to help your child:

1 Help them read using a ruler, pointer or pencil. For example your child has to read an essay about zoo in your city. Help the child to make connections. If you have been to the zoo, mention about the time you have been there and the good things you did at the zoo. Let the child share his/her thoughts. Connecting what your child already knows while he/she reads sharpens his/her focus and deepens understanding.

When working with your child, asking questions will make your child want to look for clues in the text. Pose questions that will spark your child’s curiosity as you read aloud. Do ask in between about what they are thinking. Let them know that by asking questions you are helping them to understand. Eg: If you are reading about a park in your neighborhood, ask questions like “what do you like the most in the park?” Use pictures to help them answer.

Making inference or drawing a conclusion while reading might help the child understand better. This will help the child by engaging is/her attention in the story that is being read. Eg: “She was looking beautiful in her new dress and ready to leave”, we can infer that she was probably ready for a party and was prettily dressed.

While reading with your child you need to develop a strategy where the child can let you know that they do not understand. Say for example if the child stops in between you can Re-read. Ask them if “now does it make sense?” Read out loudly and slowly and use pictures to make your story more interesting.

There are many FREE online resources (www.englishclub.com, www.understood.org, www.k12reader.com, etc) you can use to help your child in developing comprehension. If you do not want to use these resources you can use simple small paragraphs which you can make yourself, something is used as a conversation and make your own worksheets.

For example: