Why Children Struggle with Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is an essential skill necessary for school and life success. It’s also an essential skill for all students. It helps them to understand what they are reading and the lessons they learn in class. However, many children struggle with reading comprehension. 

An Oxford study found that 1 in 5 people struggle with reading comprehension. Reading issues can interfere with learning in other subjects, such as writing, spelling, fluency, and comprehension because it is such a crucial learning ability. 

Reading comprehension is not just the ability to read words on a page, more importantly, it is understanding the meaning of the text. It is such an important skill that has to be learned because every aspect of learning requires reading comprehension. Since reading is a necessary component of learning any academic material, children who have trouble understanding what they read often fall behind their peers academically, and most will never be able to catch up. 

In order to help your child improve their comprehension, you must first understand why they lack it in the first place. Many factors affect the child’s reading comprehension, and the most common cause is the lack of exposure to books and reading in their early years. 

Your child’s vocabulary is the foundation for good reading comprehension. Logically speaking, the child will only be able to understand texts and phrases in books and reading materials when they have the words in their vocabulary bank. Reading texts with many words that they barely know about results in poor comprehension. 

Children who have trouble with reading comprehension might be supported in a number of ways. The use of visual organizers as a comprehension aid is one strategy. This kind of organizer is made to assist students in putting information into a visual format so that they may better understand what they are reading or hearing.

The easiest and most effective way to improve your child’s comprehension is to build their vocabulary first through reading. When the child reads, he develops his vocabulary. As the child encounters words that are new to him, he discovers their meanings and it adds to his vocabulary bank. 

Vocabulary and phonics are the foundation of well-founded reading comprehension. The infographic below shows how reading comprehension is supported by vocabulary and phonics awareness. When all of these three are achieved (vocabulary, phonics awareness, and reading comprehension) you also achieve language fluency. 

Building a love for reading in early childhood is the key to achieving a good vocabulary foundation. However, as easy as it may sound, building a reading habit in children is not always easy. Some young children find reading time boring, while some choose to play or watch their gadgets instead of reading. Sometimes the issue is as simple as a lack of interest. A child won’t be motivated to understand the material she is reading if she is not interested in it.

How to Address Comprehension Issues in Children 

The challenge for most parents is how to get their child to read. Books with personalised elements are scientifically proven to be more engaging to children. Books designed to meet a child’s specific requirements and interests are very likely to capture the attention of children (Kucrikova, 2010). Personalised books also give a sense of ownership to the reader, an important process in perceiving oneself as a reader Dymore and Griffiths (2010). 

Reading comprehension is an important life ability. Although many children (and even adults) struggle with it, the good thing is that there are actually so many ways to address comprehension issues. Building a love for reading in early childhood is one of the best ways to ensure your child has good comprehension throughout their school years and beyond.