Summer Skills: Reading Comprehension
Summer is here! To fill the long summer days, you may want to provide your child with a little extra help after a challenging school year. Let us help you find ways to make reading fun.
Working with your child to develop and refine their reading comprehension skills is a great way to connect with your child and keep them sharp over the summer. There is no better time to enrich and develop their life skill tool kit.
STAYING SHARP OVER THE SUMMER
Comprehension is a vital life skill that we may not realize we use everyday to extract information.
Starting in grade school, we hone this skill to advance in so many aspects of our lives from an enriched understanding of the language arts to acing big tests like the ACT or SAT. Daily tasks you may take for granted like assembling furniture, following recipes, and even responding to email are easier to manage well when you have developed sharp comprehension skills.
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF READING
Preview the book
Look at the cover and pictures - what might the story be about?
Look over the table of contents - what information does it provide? What can we expect from the book based on this section?
What do we already know about the subject?
Make predictions about what you think may happen in the book
Complete comprehension checks while reading
Have your child read a few paragraphs at a time
Ask your child if they understood what they have just read - ask them to tell you about it
If not, have them stop and reread
Ask your child to think back about what they have already read
Ask questions such as Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?
Visualize
Ask your children to describe what is happening in the story
Ask them to describe characters, the setting and other details
Summarize
Ask your child to retell the story in their own words
Ask them to describe the beginning, middle, and end of the book
What problems and solutions did the characters face?
What was the author’s purpose? For example, was it to persuade, inform or entertain?
Have concerns about your child’s comprehension skills? Did you know that working with a Speech Language Pathologist can help your child develop robust comprehension skills and language fluency? We work with families to develop a custom approach to helping children grow and reach their fullest potential.