Does your child remember what they have read?

Can your child remember what they have just read?


It might be more of an issue for Year 4 than Year 5 children, but many parents I speak with comment that they don’t think their child fully understands what they have read. This has a pronounced knock-on effect when answering 11 Plus reading comprehension questions.


We're not talking about when our children are tired, uninspired or preoccupied, but when they are trying really hard to read. Then, afterwards, when you discuss the text, they make random guesses for answers to questions rather than confidently recalling information.


I think I read like this sometimes – late at night when I’m tired, and I get to the end of the page and realise I haven’t taken in anything. This is because I’ve been decoding the words but not using comprehension strategies to give the text meaning.


For many children, this is the same scenario. And it’s a catch-22 because children who don’t find reading very fulfilling don’t want to read much. And the issue becomes even more of a problem.


Three common comprehension issues:
1. Not making links between sentences.
2. Limited vocabulary means that they don’t spot essential words to help them understand an idea.
3. Reluctance to examine an idea means that deeper meaning isn't achieved or inferences are not picked up.

Five ways to help your child:

1. Ask them to visualise a sentence.
What is happening? If you drew this sentence, what would you draw?

2. Link two sentences.
What happened in the first sentence, and then what happened in the second sentence? What is different? The more this is explicitly taught, the more of a habit it will become.

3. Discuss any new words.
Talk about new words rather than skipping over them. It’s worth spending the time doing this. It’s also good modelling; if a child sees that understanding new words is essential and can’t be ignored, they will slowly understand the importance of drilling down for meaning.

4. Predict what might happen next.
You can spot children who have understood what they have read so far because their predictions are linked to the text. Those children who haven’t fully understood may make wild guesses or have limited ideas using no references to the text (such as making comments about the setting or the characters).

5. Use knowledge of the world to make links to the text.
A simple example for this sentence – ‘Samir glanced down the creek, and his stomach lurched’ – would be to discuss the meaning of 'creek' and why someone would have a ‘lurching’ stomach.

Importantly, children who have a good grasp of homophones, homographs and homonyms will comprehend better than those that don’t. So, for the example above (creek), some children would not know the difference between creak (grating or squeaking sound) and creek (a natural stream of water).

Please do let me know if you try any of these strategies, and more importantly, if they help!
Anna