Is your child having comprehension issues? If so, you need to figure out why.  Kids who struggle with comprehension issues usually don’t just “grow out of it” without at least a little intervention.  If you want to help your child, you need to figure out what the true problem is and work to solve it.  Below are a few things to check for...and what you can to do to help fix them.

1.  Check to see if your child can read the text he or she is trying to comprehend fluently and accurately.  To comprehend anything well, your child must first be able to read it.  If your child is having to work extremely hard just to figure out what the text at hand says, he or she will probably not be able to comprehend it very well.  Likewise, if he or she is able to read most of the text but is MISCALLING a lot of important words while doing so, his or her comprehension is likely to suffer as well.  After all, miscalling even a few crucial words can drastically change the meaning of the text being read.  Failure to stop at periods and/or pause at commas can also mess with your child's ability to comprehend the text at hand.

What you can do:  Have your child read the passage he or she is having difficulty comprehending OUT LOUD to you.  Listen carefully to see if he or she is struggling to read the words, miscalling words, and/or flying through punctuation marks.  If necessary, help correct any of these errors. If you don't feel comfortable helping your child with the mechanics of learning to read, consider hiring a good reading tutor. Since vision and/or convergence issues can play a part in many reading issues, especially with regard to miscalling similar-looking words and/or flying through punctuation marks, you might also consider getting your child's eyes checked.  In any case, your child MUST be able to read accurately and fluently to get the most out of whatever text is in front of him or her.

2.      Check to see if your child has any vocabulary, language, and/or processing issues.  Kids who can read all of the words on a page correctly but who don’t understand what they are reading as they go through the passage at hand often sneak under the “trouble with reading radar" because everything "sounds good" when they read.  Unfortunately, "sounding good" is not the same thing as comprehending well.  Oftentimes, this is due to  underlying vocabulary, language, and/or processing issues. 

What you can do:  Pull out a few key words from the passage and see if your child can define them and/or use them in a sentence.  If he or she has trouble, vocabulary issues could be to blame.  Don't forget to ask about peculiar phrases as well, such as “burning with anger” or “cracking up.”   Some kids read these quite literally and get an entirely different picture of what is going on in the passage as a result!   If your child has trouble understanding words and/or phrases, begin working to improve his or her vocabulary, language, and background knowledge.  Talk, talk, talk to your child about EVERYTHING!  Explain any weird phrases that pop up.  Don’t forget to READ new stories and/or passages to your child daily as well!  A good vocabulary, an adequate grasp of the language, and a decent amount of background knowledge on a variety of topics are all crucial to understanding text of all sorts. 

If your child has a clear understanding of what various words and phrases mean but still has trouble comprehending the text at hand, he or she may have a processing issue.  See what you can do to help your child use his or her strengths to overcome whatever processing issue is at hand.  For instance, some kids can't comprehend text read aloud; let these kids read silently before asking them to answer any questions.  Other kids MUST read aloud to comprehend what they are reading; let them do so.  Help your child figure out when he or she comprehends best and encourage him or her to do more of whatever seems to help him or her the most!

3.      Check to see if your child has short-term and/or working memory issues.  Kids with dyslexic tendencies and other learning difficulties often have short-term and/or working memory issues.  This can affect their ability to recall what was read.  Even though they might read the sentences at hand beautifully, kids with short-term and/or working memory issues may quickly forget each sentence read as they move on to the next.  Obviously, this can greatly limit a child’s ability to answer questions about the text read when they finally get to the end of a story or passage.  The longer the story or passage, the harder it is for someone with short-term and/or working memory issues to remember and/or comprehend what was read.

What you can do:  After a sentence or two, ask your child if he or she can remember what he or she just read.  Kids with memory issues will often have to look back at the previous sentences to remember.  In many cases, they’ll simply read back the sentences verbatim to answer your question.  If this is the case, try covering up the sentences previously read the next time you ask.  See if your child can recall anything when he or she can't look back at the words.  If your child looks at you blankly and/or can’t remember what he or she just read about, encourage him or her to begin making "mental movies" as he or she reads each sentence.  Sometimes the mental visual is enough to help kids remember what they are reading about so they can absorb the information better.  Other times, kids need a more concrete reminder.  If this is the case for your child, allow him or her to draw a little picture in the margin (or on a separate piece of paper) to represent the main idea of whatever happened or was discussed in each paragraph.  In either case, remind your child that it’s okay to look back at the passage read when answering comprehension questions, but that he or she needs to TRY to remember as much as possible while reading the text.  With this said, encourage your child to look back through the text whenever he or she simply can’t remember something – a date, a name, a place, etc.  Guessing is generally NOT a good idea for kids with memory issues!

4.      Check to see if your child is paying attention and/or racing through the passage.  Kids with attention issues who struggle with comprehension might read the passage beautifully but “tune out” and/or think of other things while they are reading.  Others (with or without attention issues), might simply race through whatever they are reading, forgetting to soak up all the details while they do so.   For many of these readers, the goal seems to be more about simply getting through the passage than understanding and/or learning from it. 

What you can do:  Listen to your child read.  If he or she is rushing through the text, slow him or her down.  Make sure he or she is stopping at periods and other ending marks, as well as pausing at commas, dashes, and semi-colons.  Remind your child that someone is trying to tell him or her about something and that he or she needs to pay attention while reading in order to understand the message and/or story being told.  Encourage your child to make a mental movie of the story while reading to help him or her keep his or her full attention on the text at hand.  Ask questions afterward to ensure he or she paid attention and understood the story and/or text read.  Have your child reread the text if necessary.  Let him or her know that it is important to go back and reread text if he or she finds he or she no longer knows what is going on in the story.  Remind your child that it's not just about getting to the end of the passage; he or she needs to actually know what the passage was about when he or she gets to the end!

All in all, there are many reasons why some kids have trouble comprehending text.  If you are unable to help your child, search for someone who can.  If you believe your child has a condition that requires medical intervention, talk with your pediatrician.  There is little value in knowing how to read if one can’t also comprehend what is read.  Do whatever you can to ensure you child learns to not only read the words before him or her but to comprehend them as well.  It will be time well spent!

All the best and much success,

Katy Huller

Author of Kinders Can! READ and WRITE!, Tricks Practice Cards, Alphabasics, and Kids Can! READ and WRITE! 2 and 3 Letter Words!

If you are a parent or teacher of a beginning reader, you've probably been urged to teach your beginning reader "sight words" at one time or another.  My advice to you?  Don't.  As a former teacher and current literacy tutor, I have seen too many kids suffer needlessly from what I call "Sight Word Syndrome." And it's not a pretty sight.

What is "Sight Word Syndrome?"  Sight Word Syndrome is a condition characterized by the inability to sound out new or unfamiliar words, often accompanied by the frequent miscalling of seemingly "known" words.  Most kids afflicted with Sight Word Syndrome (SWS) appear to be readers as long as the text they are asked to read is kept within their "sight word vocabulary" and/or is either memorized or extremely predictable in nature.  Once text becomes more difficult, however, more and more words are miscalled, mumbled over, or skipped altogether.  This can make it extremely difficult for the person afflicted with SWS to accurately comprehend what is being "read," and often leads to increased frustration, tantrums, and tears.  Generally, this condition does not go away on its own.  If not treated effectively, it can become a lifelong ailment.

Unfortunately, more and more parents and teachers are relying on having their kids learn lists of "sight words" to get them reading.  The result?  Far too many kids who glance at words to read them, rather than through them, from left to right. This causes similar looking words to look the same to those with SWS.  As a result, you might hear them call out "in" instead of on, "what" instead of want, or "very" instead of every.  The word "that" might become with, "where" might become here, and "tell" might become tall.  Even a word as simple as "I" might be confused with the word A. 

And it doesn't stop there.  As these "sight word readers" progress, they often make more costly switches, turning words like "deserved" into discovered, "stretched" into screeched, and "scene" into since.  When this happens, comprehending the text supposedly "read" becomes more and more difficult.  Even the smartest kids with the best vocabulary can begin to struggle and fail.  In many cases, kids who used to love books often begin to hate them, creating another problem altogether.

So what should you do?  Teach your beginning readers how letters work together to make words.  Start by showing them how to sound out 2 and 3 letter words like is, in, on, him, his, hat, big, can, fit, bug, red, etc.  Once they are comfortable doing this, show them how to sound out words with beginning and ending blends such as and, flag, just, sled, sent, grab, hand, fast, long, etc.  Then teach them the "tricks" (letters and/or letter combinations that create new sounds when they appear together or in a certain position in words, such as sh, ch, th, er, ou, oo, etc.), and show them how to read (and write) words that contain these.  This is when the world of reading REALLY opens up to them.  Words like out, she, gave, like, take, want, them, these, never, were, are, tall, weird, different, chilly, deserved, discovered, etc. are all easily decodable once you know the "tricks!"  After your kids have a decent base, get your kids reading Dr. Seuss books, and help them sound out and adjust any weird words that don't follow the "tricks."  Then move them into whatever trade books interest them.  Finally, introduce them to beginning chapter books.  This process not only teaches them the "sight words," but how to read just about any other word they come across as well.  This is what real reading is about.  Being able to read.  Anything.  Not just memorized or predictable text.

Don't delay!  Throw away the confusing "sight word lists," and teach your kids how to really read instead.  They are counting on you.

All the best and much success,
Katy Huller

To help your kids tell the difference between a "b" and a "d," tell them that the "b" has the /b/ /b/ bat first, while the "d" has the /d/ /d/ daddy's face (or the /d/ /d/ donut) first.  Then have them practice telling you which is which and why!  If they still continue to switch the two, keep reminding them of this trick and continue to quiz them!  (Old habits can be hard to break!)

All the best and much success,
Katy Huller

Ready or not, Halloween is coming!  My daughter has already picked out her costume.  She wants to be Yoda from Star Wars.  This suits her.  She’s tiny in stature but mighty in spirit.  Still, when she goes trick-or-treating this year, she is hoping to be greeted with TREATS, not TRICKS.  This makes sense -- how many kids that you know of would look forward to hiking through hilly neighborhoods on Halloween if they thought they were going to get a bunch of nasty tricks rather than treats? 

The same is true of reading.  If your kids discover they are going to get "tricked" rather than "treated" each time they try to make their way through written text, most will quickly lose interest, and many will stop wanting to read altogether.  After all, it won't be fun.  It won't even make sense. 

It will be confusing.  And frustrating.  And they won't want to do it.

Can you blame them?  Who among us looks forward to doing things that are hard for us...that don't make sense...that confuse us...that make us feel stupid...that scare us...that make the people we love most seem angry and frustrated around us?

Not many, that's for sure.

If you want to make reading more of a "treat" than a "trauma" for your kids, you must prepare them for the words they will encounter on their journeys before you send them out to discover the world of reading on their own. In other words, you must turn the "tricks" they are sure to come across into treats!

To make reading more of a "treat" for your kids, you must teach them more than letters, sounds, and "sight words."  You must teach them to blend sounds together, starting on the left and moving to the right.  And, equally as important but often overlooked or introduced way too late, you must make sure your kids are equipped to deal with the many "tricks" they are sure to meet along the way -- letters and/or letter combinations that create new sounds when they appear together or in a certain position in words than they normally make when alone. Combinations like sh, ch, th, er, or, ou, tion, oo, aw, ay, etc.  And don’t forget “sleepy e,” “2 vowels,” and “le endings.”  Y at the end of a short or long word is another doozie you need to remember to teach them.  There are many others as well.  I’ve counted up to 37 so far, but I’m sure there are more.   

One or more of these "tricks" are hiding in almost every word!  If you skip this part of their training and rely on teaching "sight words" instead, your kids (especially those with less than stellar visual memories) may just turn to the “dark side” and begin guessing their way through unfamiliar text, saying such things as “why” for very, “tell” for tall, “deserved” for discovered, and/or “admit” for amount. You might even hear them confuse the word I with A!  "Had" might become did.  "Take" might become like. Such scandalous switches are common among those who have been sent to battle words before they have been adequately trained to even spar with them.  They simply don't have the tools or training they need to deal with such skilled adversaries. Before long, one previously "known" word starts looking like the next, and these untrained "readers" either give up or resort to spitting out words from their mental Roladexes each time they see a word with a somewhat familiar letter, shape, or size.

Don't let this happen to your young Jedi.  Teach your kids what they really need to know to read the words they will soon encounter -- letters, sounds, “tricks,” a good blending/segmenting technique, and a few common “outlaw words” (words that can’t be sounded out even if you know the “tricks”).  If you teach them these skills and give them lots of guided practice using them, you should see your kids' reading habits skyrocket.  You should see them turn into excellent readers who get "treated" as they read rather than "tricked."   And, as reading the text before them becomes easier and easier, you should see your kids learn to love interacting with books and literature, rather than racing off to avoid them.  Or crying.  Or complaining.  Or throwing a king-sized fit.

Of course, you'll also have to make sure your kids have a good vocabulary, adequate background knowledge, and a few other key reading ingredients.  After all, being able to decode words effectively is only the first step.  To be real readers, your kids must also be able to understand them! 

Regardless of where your kids are today, start giving them the skills they need to move forward.  They are counting on you.  Don't end their training early and neglect to teach them what they really need to know to read the words around them.  Don't send them out to battle a book only halfway prepared.

As my daughter loves to quote from Yoda, "Try not.  Do.  Or do not.  There is no try.” 

Train your kids.  Teach them what they need to know to be successful readers and writers.  Send them out this Halloween and every day thereafter equipped to turn any "trick" into a treat.  You won't be sorry. 


All the best and much success…and may the Force be with you!

Katy Huller