What is Reading Comprehension? Tips for Success

Feb 27

2 min read

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning of a text, not just what is said explicitly but also what is implied. It helps children to read for meaning, make connections between texts and passages and being able to think deeply about a text.

For children to be able to understand a text, they need to be able to decode what they are reading so they can make connections between what they've read and what they already know. Comprehension skills develop through pupils' exposure to a range of high quality texts and discussions about what they are reading.

Why are comprehension skills important?

Comprehension skills are important for academic success, across the curriculum. Also, if children can read with meaning, they are more likely to enjoy a text and choose to read for pleasure.

How can I support reading comprehension?

Link the text to personal experiences - this helps them to engage more with the text. It could be that a character feels left out and then a child can explain how they have previously felt left out.
Develop their retrieval skills - Taking information directly from the text. For example, what year did Second World War start?
Encouraging inference - This is where something in the text is implied but not necessarily written directly. For example, how did Christopher feel about not being invited to the party?
Deduction - This is where you might encourage children to make predictions. For example, what do you think the main character will do after they have been for a walk? To do this Make sure you ask them to explain their answers using evidence from the text.
Opinion - General questions such as, 'do you think the main character is a nice person, why and use evidence from the text.
Language - Here you can ask about the language used in the text. For example, 'why do you think the author described the color as 'sunny'?'

If you are a parent and looking for more practical support tips for teaching comprehension, take a look at our article.

If you want something a bit less formal, book chat is a good alternative to this.

On Pageticker, a digital reading record, parents and teachers can choose to rate a child's comprehension over time if they wish to. We will be launching in January 2025, sign up here to find out more and to get access to one of our discount codes.