In order for children to perform their best in school, they must learn to understand what they are reading. But for kids with reading disabilities, reading comprehension does not come easily. Children must master the art of phonics, and develop reading fluency before they can even hope to understand the meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or story. Once a child has a good grasp of phonics and reads more fluently, improving comprehension will be easier.
Reading Comprehension Problems in Children With Special Needs
If a child with special needs displays symptoms of a reading disability relating to phonemic awareness, phonics, or reading fluency, then these issues must be addressed before expecting the child to have good reading comprehension.
Sometimes a child with a reading disability will have no difficulties with reading mechanics at all, but still will not understand the ideas and themes in a sentence, paragraph, or story. When reading aloud, there may be incorrect pauses in the middle of a sentence, or no pauses at the end of sentences. Reading is done in a monotone voice with little or no expression. Vocabulary skills may be weak. Also, the child will not be able to summarize what was just read.
Strategies and Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension
If a child with a reading disability is having difficulty with reading comprehension, a teacher may want to try the following strategies and accommodations in the classroom to improve understanding:
- Review what the story is about before reading it. This can teach students the right way to summarize a story.
- When reading to the students, pause and ask questions frequently about what was just read.
- Teach students to ask themselves questions during their reading time. This can be done by preparing a reading questionnaire and marking when to pause in the story and review each question.
- Have the students list what they think the main ideas of a reading passage are. Do this often as an exercise in class, as a group and individually.
- Read stories that are related to a subject the child with special needs already knows or is interested in.
- Teach a child who doesn’t understand something that was read to raise his or her hand and ask for help.
- Provide dictionaries so that kids can look up words they don’t know (see vocabulary strategies below).
- Important reading (for instance instructions for a test or activity) should be read to the students until reading comprehension improves.
Vocabulary Word Strategies
It is important to provide students will a list of vocabulary words before they are required to read a story containing them. This step will augment a student’s comprehension of the passage, and will also help with word recognition and pronunciation. Also, try providing pictures of the unknown words along with the reading material.
Helping children who struggle with reading in the regular classroom can be challenging for teachers. However, children with reading disabilities will struggle in all areas of learning until their issues can be addressed. Therefore, teachers need to apply some of these strategies and tips to improve reading comprehension. When children with special needs begin to comprehend what they are reading, a whole new world of possibilities becomes open to them, both academically and personally.
Sources:
Carter, Nari, Prater, Mary Anne, Dyches, Tina T., Making Accommodations and Adaptations for Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities. OH: Pearson Education Inc., 2009.
Cooley, Miles L., Ph. D., Teaching Kids with Mental Health & Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom. MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc., 2007.
For more information on these reading issues, see Teaching Phonemic Awareness, Teaching Phonics to Kids With Special Needs, and Reading Fluency for Kids With Special Needs.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
