Multisensory Reading Clinic

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Reading Comprehension Problems

 

But our child can read, he just cannot comprehend what he read...

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Comprehension is a generic term that includes both listening and reading. In listening, comprehension means understanding the meaning of the words or sentences that are being said or read while in reading, comprehension means understanding the meaning of the printed words or sentences. If a child can comprehend the story that you read to him, but cannot comprehend what he read, he does not have comprehension problems but reading problems. It is either he does not recognize the words he just read or he lacks fluency. 

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​Recognizing the words means being able to read known and unknown words within the same concept. If he can read some known words such as cat, dog, and kid, he might be memorizing or familiarizing these printed words because he has seen these words several times, if he cannot read words he has not seen within the same concept such as sat, hog, and kit. Then he has reading problems and not reading comprehension problems. 

 

A child who is reading the text rapidly in an unconscious manner and can understand what he is reading has no problems with reading comprehension except if he has hyperlexia.

 

On the other hand, a child who is reading laboriously must have difficulties sounding out and connecting the sounds of the words and the small groups of words we call syllables in longer words. His mind is preoccupied with deciphering the words and cannot attend to the meaning of the words or sentences, thus he lacks fluency; the reason why the child has reading comprehension problems.

 

​​​Learning to read is like building our own house. We need a strong foundation at the very start of the construction and connect the pillars of the building correctly or our house would wither away and we cannot add more floors. The sounds of the English language are the foundation for learning to read and connecting the sounds is the pillar of learning to read and these problems need to be addressed at the very early stage of learning to read - the lowest level of the phonological awareness of the language system. 

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To further solve the reading comprehension problems, have your child evaluated by a psychologist, but remember not all psychologists can diagnose dyslexia, therefore ask your child's psychologist if he can help you with this matter, but for the time being, you can partly solve this puzzle.

 

Clues for Reading Comprehension Problems

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1. Ask your child to read words that he has not seen

For younger children:

Ask him to read words such as zim, caf, pud, if he cannot read these words then he cannot read. Also, most children who cannot read just associate pictures with words, so do the following tasks and ask your child to match the pictures with the correct words they represent:

• show your child the picture of a dog with the following words at the bottom of the picture: dop, bog, dog, dug

• show your child the picture of a car with the following words at the bottom of the picture: can, car, cap, cam

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The activities above will help to confirm if your child is just looking at the pictures to "read." Thus, if he cannot match the pictures with the right words then he cannot read, such as with the picture of the car, your child is pointing the word can. 

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For older children:​

• scubber, groip, scrood, prommest, microintescular,

 

Difficulties with word recognition, accuracy, speed, and fluency- all contribute to poor reading and greatly affect reading comprehension, thus word recognition and fluency problems must be seriously and explicitly addressed in literacy instruction. That is also the reason why "comprehension" is at the highest level and on top of the language system and phonological awareness is at the lowest level of the language system.

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Now you know that your child cannot read, your next step is to find a specific reading tutor to help him with his reading difficulties.

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Remember, you are not looking for a typical tutor even if that tutor's rate is very cheap because in the end you are just wasting your hard-earned income and you are not helping your child to better himself.

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to be continued...