Reading Comprehension

[Jeri Lynn]

My son, who is now a freshman has always struggled with reading comprehension. It is starting to really affect his grades. Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can help him with this?

Thanks!

[MsMin]

Has he been tested for a reading problem? Sometimes it helps to know if it's dyslexia or some other processing problem. I know many ppl are pleased with programs like Sylvan but it's not my area so basically I know how to test for it but not how to tutor or help :( I know we have a couple school psyc ppl on here maybe one will see this. I would think the school would have services to help him (unless he's in private school b/c sometimes they don't have the resources if they are a small school) :pixie:

[PirateLover]

Please have him tested. My fiancee went through his entire grade school and high school years being told he had a reading problem, but it was never investigated further. I was 17 years old and was able to figure out he had dyslexia. He was frustrated all those years simply because no one took the time to test him a bit more. If he does have a reading disability, he will be entitled to get help tailored to him, like extra time on tests, maybe some tutoring.

If it is simply reading comprehension, there are things you could work with him on as well. The most helpful thing is to read for a purpose. If he will have to answer questions at the end of a chapter, he should read those questions over a few times before he reads the passage, this way he knows what he's looking for and he can focus on recognizing key words. If there are no questions, he could do things on his own like briefly summarizing each page or every 2 pages- what were the important points? There are a lot of tips and tricks out there. I might even talk to a teacher about it. He or she might be able to point you to a website or tutoring company.

[Disney-4-Me]

One of the best things to do to improve reading comprehension is to read a book together and discuss it. If he doesn't want to read a book aloud together, you could each just read the same book at the same time and stop frequently, maybe at the end of each chapter, and discuss what is happening in the story.

Time together is also another benefit of doing this. :thumbsup:

It's hard to be tested and change directions in education at the Freshman level. Maybe reading together over the Summer will help him enough. If not, you can always speak to his counselor at the beginning of the next school year.

[BronxTigger]

Have him organize his information from texts by using "graphic organizers". You can google that term and many things will come up. Graphic organizers come in many different types; many are designed to be used with different genres or for different reading purposes. You can find books full of these if you go to a teacher resource store or that section of Barnes and Noble. Scholastic publishes many books full of graphic organizers; most say to use up through 8th grade but most can be used higher than that.

As you read, ask questions. You can search "bloom's taxonomy" and there are a lot of question starters that come at different levels of critical thinking. By asking questions (and talking to his teachers), maybe you can find out if his comprehension is related more towards processing/organizing errors or if it more of a vocabulary problem. If it's a vocabulary problem, learning new words should help him a lot.

I agree that it is a good idea to get him evaluated for a possible learning problem. At the very least, his school should have some sort of options for students who are falling behind. Advocate for him at the school and don't let him get written off.

[Gooftroop5]

Dd's had comprhension problems. She just read too fast that she didn't abosorb anything. This could be his problem too. You don't have any problem reading words to have a comprehension problem.

I can tell you what they do with dd's 3rd grade class. These kids read above their grade level but because they read so fast they don't always comprehend what they are reading. I'm sure it will help your 9th grader too. (don't tell him 3rd graders are doing it) It is something you can do over the summer to help out next year.

I was told to read by example. Show dd how it is done. Both read the same paragraph of a magazine or something of interest it doesn't have to be a book. Then have him ask you questions & you do the same back to him. This causes him to make sure your answers are correct & he has answers for you.

They have to write down the who why what where & so on. The other thing they do is Read a chapter of the book then they have to write 3 questions that they will have to find out later in the book for example "Why did the boy ride the bus?" "Why did he name his dog pig?" "Who is this person sitting in front?" then as they keep reading they have to write the answers down & come up with new questions. This has helped dd a lot. You could use these methods with anything including social studies. It makes them comprehend the words or at least slow down to start understand them.

If he really gets something he doesnt' understand encourage him to ask.

If this doesn't work then I have to agree with everyone else have him tested. They just found out bil's step son whom is 15 was dyslexic.

Good Luck!

[crazypoohbear]

My DS has ADD, (inactivity) and a poor working memory, ( kinda like having several windows open on your computer at once to gather information, His brain can't retreive everything at once)
I found that books on tape/movies helped him along with the book itself, (think read along when they were little)

Also, have his eyes checked when DS was younger, he had tracking problems.
He would read the beginning of the first line and the end of the second line so nothing was making sense because it was out of order.

To strengthen the eye muscles have him hold a pencil/pen at arms length, slowly bring it towards the middle of his eyes until he sees 2 of it. stop and go back to the starting point and continue this over several days/weeks until he can get close to his face.

Also, be careful when/if you have him tested.
schools will brush it off or reorganize the numbers to make him ineligble for SPED.
My DS tested superior on certain things and Low average on others. They said that combined he was "average".
He has struggled with the same issues since 5th grade because he is still "low average" in the same areas and "superior" in others.
This does not make him average overall it makes him frustrated.

[Tiggerlovr9000]

All 3 of my children had trouble with their studies at sometime in their lives. My ds had trouble reading in 2nd grade. Our solution was to hook him up with a retired teacher in our local nursing home that he would read to 3 days a week. When he graduated he was ranked first in his class. Both of my dd's had trouble in math, found a teaching student at the local college to tutor them 2 to 3 times a week. Oldest dd has just finished with a 4.0 in her first year of college. Youngest dd just made honor roll in first year of high school and still goes to tutoring. There was no way I could have taught them, just don't think they would have done for me what they did for strangers. I just think the key is to be very pro-active. Good luck.

[Cinderelley]

I give Sylvan a huge :thumbsup:! My DD struggled with reading so much that I couldn't even get her to look in the direction of a book. After a year, I can't get her to put her books down.

I'm sure there's ways to do it yourself, but she and I were butting heads so much, it took an outsider to calm things down.