Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a passage of text. It involves more than simply knowing how to pronounce the words on a page. Instead, it means your child is able to extract meaning from the words to understand the message the author is trying to convey.

Having strong reading comprehension skills is crucial to your child’s academic and professional success. But unfortunately, many children struggle to develop these skills. Parents, here’s how to help your child with reading comprehension at home:

How Do You Know If Your Child Has Comprehension Problems?

Don’t wait for a teacher to tell you that your child has a reading comprehension problem. Instead, be on the lookout for signs of a reading comprehension problem. Some of the most common signs include:

• Showing no interest in reading
• Unable to answer questions regarding what they just read
• Unable to focus on what they are reading
• Omitting important details when talking about what they are reading
• Inability to connect main ideas or events of a story
• Skipping over words, sentences, or entire paragraphs when reading aloud

If you spot any of these signs, your child may be struggling with reading comprehension.

What Are the 5 Reading Comprehension Strategies?

There are a number of strategies that kids can implement while reading to improve their comprehension skills. If your child is struggling to understand what they read, encourage them to use one or more of these reading comprehension strategies the next time they read:

• Monitoring: Kids should get in the habit of actively monitoring how well they understand the text as they read it. If they realize they don’t understand a passage, teach them to stop, reread the passage, or ask for help.
• Graphic Organizers: Some children are visual learners, so creating graphic organizers can help them better understand what they are reading. For example, tell your child to create a flowchart that illustrates the sequence of events in a passage. Your child can also create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast main characters.
• Questions: Teach your child to ask themselves questions about a book before, during, and after they finish reading. What do I think this book will be about based on the cover? Why did the main character do that? What will probably happen next? Asking and answering these questions can help your child gain a deeper understanding of the text.
• Visualizing: Tell your child to create mental images of what they are reading. This simple strategy will keep visual learners engaged.
• Summarizing: Teach your child to summarize the main events of a story either mentally or on paper. This exercise will help your child remember what they read, connect main ideas, and determine which details of the story are important and which are not.

Your child can use one or more of these reading comprehension strategies every time they read. By implementing these strategies, kids can drastically improve their comprehension skills.

What Can Parents Do to Help With Reading Comprehension?

Kids can use the strategies above whenever they read independently. But there are also ways for parents to work with their children to help them improve their reading comprehension skills. Follow these tips:

• Take turns reading aloud. Read a page aloud then ask your child to read the next page aloud. As you read, ask each other questions about the story to monitor your comprehension.
• Start a family book club. Get everyone in the family to read the same book on their own. Then, bring the family together at the dinner table to discuss the book.
• Help your child connect the text to real-life experiences. For example, if your child is reading a story about camping, remind them about the time your family went on a camping trip. Tapping into this background knowledge will help them understand the text.
• Use flashcards to broaden their vocabulary. The broader their vocabulary, the better they will be able to understand what they are reading.
• Teach them how to use context clues to understand the text. Show them how the illustrations and other words in the passage can be used to figure out what something means.

How Can Your Child Practice Comprehension Skills At Home?

When it comes to reading comprehension, practice makes perfect. Encourage your child to work on their reading comprehension skills using the Readability app, which is the only smart reading comprehension app your child can use anytime, anywhere.

This app is designed with an interactive voice-based questions & answers feature, which asks your child questions about the text to keep them engaged and improve their comprehension. Talking to the app is just like talking to a reading tutor! Download the Readability app on your smartphone or tablet today to start your free 7-day trial.

Many of our kids are enjoying the freedom of summer break. It’s a chance to rest and recharge both for parents and kids before the next school year begins. Although many parents might be looking for activities to keep their kids busy during summer, many more parents are looking into how to help my child read better before school starts.

Some parents might not consider enrolling their children in summer school or academic programs over summer break because of the costs. However, many kids end up falling into the “summer slide” and struggle in the first weeks of the new school year. 

What is the “summer slide”?

The “summer slide” is the tendency for students, especially those from low-income, to lose the academic achievement gains they earned in the previous school year.

Students tend to fall behind over the summer because they are likely not getting any academic stimulation or practice to maintain the learning outcomes they gained.

According to Scholastic, “ A more recent study of children in 3rd to 5th grades also showed that students lost, on average, about 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math during summer break.”

The lack of continuous and structured learning over the summer can contribute to the slump many children have over summer break.

While many children are in danger of falling behind over the summer, there are ways to avoid the “summer slide”.

How can I help my child read better?

If you fear your child losing their academic gains over the summer, there are a few easy activities you can incorporate into their summer days to help them read better before the new school year.

•  Cook together – You can choose one night for your child to pick a recipe they want to try and cook the dish together. You can have them read the recipe to you while you prepare the meal or you can alternate where you read to them and they prepare part of the dish – with your supervision of course!

This can help them practice reading in a practical way and gives them a purpose for reading to fulfill a task.

• Schedule time to read – The biggest reason children lose their gains over the summer is because they often do not have the scheduled learning time like they do when they go to a classroom regularly. 

During summer break, you should schedule time to read as a family. It can be time where you read to your children or they read to you. It can even just be a time to read individual books but together as a family.

Making reading a priority by scheduling it in every day can help them get some much needed structure over the summer.

•  Let them choose a book – Many children might be reluctant to read because they are not enjoying the material they are reading. Over the summer give them the freedom to choose the books they want to read.

They will be more motivated and invested in actually starting and finishing the book.

•  Practice real-world reading – You should encourage your child to read anything and everything they can. This means not just limiting their reading practice to books but also reading posters or billboards they see as well as shampoo bottles or food packaging.

• Have them create books – This is a great activity to help kids practice reading skills but also to get creative. You can have your child create their own books at home and then read them to you.

You can even create an actual bound book through websites that create them for you. You just need to input your child’s story and illustrations.

• Use reading apps – Most likely, your child is already learning to play on a tablet or smartphone. Why not use those online programs and tools to help them improve their reading skills? There are tons of reading apps available such as Readability that turn reading into an interactive and game-like experience.

What apps can help my child improve their reading skills?

Reading apps are a great way to keep your kids learning over the summer because they gamify reading to keep your kids entertained and motivated. Here are our favorite reading apps:

• Chicktionary – Chicktionary is great for new readers who need to build their sight word and vocabulary. Your child is given a set of letters and they must arrange them in as many words as they can.

This fun game introduces new words to kids and helps to also improve their spelling and phonemic awareness.

• ABCmouse – This app is great if you have kids of different ages and grade levels in your home. Your child can choose different reading levels to explore and play different games that help improve various reading skills such as vocabulary building and reading comprehension.
• Readability – If you are looking for an app that helps with overall reading improvement, Readability is the app for you. This innovative reading app asks like a private tutor for your child. They can choose a story from the large in-app library and have the app read the story to them as they follow along.

Using Interactive Voice based Question & Answers, the app can then help improve your child’s reading comprehension by asking them questions about the story they just read then listens to their answers.

You also have the option of having the app listen to your child read the story aloud and gives them instant feedback and error correction to help them improve.

Using any of these techniques or tools, such as Readability, can keep them learning and enjoying their summer vacation.

Keeping kids learning over the summer break can help them not only improve their reading for the next semester if they are struggling, but it can give them a chance to actually get ahead of their classmates in reading.

Many new readers might struggle with reading at first. Reading is not a skill that comes naturally for a lot of students. However, your child can overcome their reading struggles by using the right tools and support. Using an online reading helper is the best way to help a struggling reader because it is a great learning tool that your child is probably already familiar with and enjoys using.

Children today are not only learning math and reading in school, but they are also learning how to use technology.Many schools are incorporating technology into their curriculum.

In fact, your child might be more of a tech expert than you are! The benefits of using technology as a tool for learning are the reason why so many educators want to incorporate them into the classroom.

You can also use technology as a way to help your child continue their learning at home especially for improving their reading skills. 

1.  Sneaking in learning 

Often, the last thing that kids want to do when they get home from school is to keep on doing schoolwork. A great way to get a resistant reader to keep on learning is to sneak it in.

An online reading helper is often designed to be interactive and game-like. This makes learning fun and more like a video game than an extension of school. Your child can continue to learn to read without even knowing it. 

2.  Practice makes perfect 

Getting a lot of practice is important for struggling readers who want to improve. The average child needs between four and 14 exposures to learn a new word.

Without practice, your child will likely always struggle to learn to read independently. An online reading helper can provide them a wide variety of ways to practice their reading skills, so they will never get bored.

If your child is not receptive to the types of reading activities being done at school, you can supplement their learning by using an online reading tool such as an app to help them get a different kind of learning experience that might benefit them more.

3.  Phonemic awareness

For new readers, phonemic awareness is essential for learning new words, building vocabulary, and improving fluency. As your child learns how letters and sounds come together to form words, they are able to recognize and learn words more quickly in texts.

An online reading helper with speech recognition technology, such as Readability, can help your child learn the relationships between specific letters and sounds.

Readability specifically helps with phonemic awareness by listening to your child as they read aloud and gives them immediate error correction when they pronounce a word incorrectly.  

4.  Reading comprehension 

Reading comprehension is one of the main reading goals for new readers, but it is also one of the most difficult. Reading comprehension is basically being able to understand what a text or what the author is trying to say.

Reading comprehension is a difficult reading skill to master because it relies so heavily on other skills:

•  phonemic awareness
•  vocabulary building
• fluency

Struggling readers could benefit from using an online reading helper to improve their reading comprehension. Online reading helpers can provide different techniques and strategies from what is being taught in class to help improve reading comprehension.

For example, Readability actually uses innovative Interactive Voice based Questions & Answers which asks your child questions about the story they just read. This type of review can help your child gauge their comprehension of the story and helps them use their critical thinking to understand what they just read.

5.  Personalized learning  

A big benefit of using an online reading helper is that it provides personalized learning for your child. Many of these online reading helpers have an initial diagnostic exercise to check where your child’s reading level is and then provide materials based on that diagnostic.

Your online reading helper can provide a more personalized learning experience for your child, which is something they likely are not able to get regularly at school. 

6.  Available 24/7

 The main benefit that an online reading helper can provide for your struggling reader is that it is available 24/7. Using an app version of an online reading helper can allow your child to access help or practice whenever and wherever they want. They are a portable and accessible way to learn at the pace that they want and need.

This is especially useful during summer or winter breaks when your child is not in school. Even while on vacation, they can keep on improving their reading!

An online reading helper is a great tool to use for struggling or reluctant readers. They can make reading fun and interactive. Your child will actually learn and enjoy reading!

Using a tool like Readability can help them improve various reading skills at one time such as phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension. You can give Readability a try through their free trial and you will find it is an essential tool to improve your child’s learning.

Parents whose children are about to enter third grade in the fall may be concerned that their child fell behind because of virtual learning issues during the shelter-in-place orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. Third grade is the year that many children learn multiplication facts and begin to read harder texts (maybe chapter books).

The decreased availability of education for some children could leave parents feeling that their child has fallen behind and wondering how to help a third-grader with reading…especially as the academic stakes become much higher because of mandated standardized testing (which often begin in third grade).

The Learning Curve During Covid

When schools shut down across the country last spring, some districts were prepared for the online world of education and created extensive virtual learning options for students. Others might have been unable to provide access to learning for all students.

Parents were thrown into the role of teacher, and many may have been ill-prepared to help a third-grader with reading, teach math problems, explain science lessons, or create their own home school program.

Pew Research reported that lower-income families seemed to be hit the hardest during the school closures. According to Pew, “…about three-in-ten lower-income parents (29%) say their children’s school has provided not much or no instruction, versus 13% of those in the upper income group who say this.”

In addition, Pew also noted that a little more than 40 percent of low-income families were concerned that their child might backslide.

Even when the online learning options seemed to work perfectly in the eyes of the district, some parents may simply have been unable to take on the role of a teacher. Work obligations could have resulted in a lack of time for educational engagement with kids, and, for many parents, balancing work with overseeing online learning was simply overwhelming.

As businesses reopened and parents have been sent back to work, the fear is what education will look like this fall. Some districts are discussing an alternating schedule to reduce capacity or online learning options.

Parents have been outspoken about the struggle this poses to their daily lives, noting that the biggest complication to a partial reopening of schools (i.e. reduced capacity) is that many parents are expected by their employers to come into the office now that businesses have reopened.

How to Help a Third Grader with Reading Before School Begins

Summer may feel like catch-up time for parents to help their child before school begins in the fall. Maybe there is more time now to help a third-grader with reading or to work on math skills.

If time is still constrained, though, there are a few ways that parents can help kids during the summer…especially with reading. For children who just finished third grade or who are about to start third grade in the fall, here are a few ideas to help their reading journey:

• Sign children up for a reading club or program (via the library, school, etc.)
• Read together at night (ask ‘wh’ questions to gauge comprehension)
• Let children listen to the book as they read
• Play word games
• Download reading comprehension worksheets (or email the school for resources)
• Use a reading app like Readability

How Do Parents Know if a Child Has Fallen Behind?

The end of last year was fairly chaotic for many families. School didn’t look anything like the norm, and it may have been difficult to gauge a child’s intellectual growth.

Parents might not know their child’s reading level at the end of the year. However, there should be baselines from the middle of the year that parents can access by sending an email to the school.

Most children are given reading assessments throughout the year to gauge growth and identify possible struggles and concerns. If a child was on target mid-year, parents will at least have an idea as to what level was last mastered.

By understanding this reading level, parents can choose books that are a fit. If a child is still reading those leveled books fluently, parents may feel confident to boost them to more difficult text.

However, if a child was below grade-level or reading below the grade expectations before the pandemic, not making adequate progress or simply struggling, then parents may need to seek out additional literacy resources.

A reading app like Readability can help readers who struggle with comprehension or phonics. A built-in AI tutor corrects pronunciation issues and asks questions about the story to check for understanding. The app also moves with the child, and it only advances to a harder level when a child displays mastery.

While Covid and the shelter-in-place mandates have impacted learning, the pandemic also led to a spike in unemployment. Many families may be struggling financially, and educational resources may be an investment that must be carefully researched.

Readability provides a free seven-day trial for parents to explore the app’s features. Parents can start their free trial by simply entering an email address, and there is no obligation beyond the trial period.

First grade is an important year in a child’s academic career. This is the year where your children will start to focus less on playtime and more on learning crucial skills they need to flourish. Developing strong reading skills during first grade can set your child up for future academic success. So if your child is struggling to read, it’s important to take action to ensure they don’t fall behind. Here’s how to help my first grader read at home:

What Should A First Grader Be Able to Read?

Parents should know what first graders should be capable of reading at this age so they can determine whether or not their child is reading at grade level. Some of the first grade reading skills your child should be starting to develop include:

• Understanding the difference between long and short vowel sounds
• Learning the sounds of common consonant combinations such as “sh,” “ch,” and “wh”
• Creating new words by adding different endings, such as turning “run” into “running”
• Broadening their vocabulary to include words with more than one syllable
• Understanding the different components that make a sentence
• Using context clues to figure out what an unfamiliar word means
• Using their prior knowledge on a topic to improve their reading comprehension

Every child is unique, but these are some of the basic reading skills that the average first grader should have at this age. If your child has not developed these skills, it’s best to provide them with additional help to ensure they don’t fall behind.

How Can I Help My First Grader With Reading?

It can be hard for parents to watch their first graders struggle to read. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways for parents to play an active role in helping their children become better readers. Here’s how you can help your first grader learn to read at home:

• Help your child learn unfamiliar words. If your child runs into an unfamiliar word, point them in the direction of context clues they can use to figure out what the word means.
• Ask them to tell you what happened in the story they just read. Summarizing a story in a few short sentences will help improve their reading comprehension skills.
• Teach them word families, which are groups of words that rhyme. For example, one word family may include the words sun, run, fun, and bun. Teaching your first grader word families will broaden their vocabulary and help them understand how a single letter can change the entire sound and meaning of the word.
• Use letter magnets or foam dice to create new words together.
• Take turns reading to one another. Reading aloud is important for every new reader, and listening to you read can help your child improve their fluency skills and broaden their vocabulary.

Start implementing some of these strategies at home so you can help your child improve their reading skills and become a better reader.

How Do You Motivate A First Grader to Read?

Learning to read isn’t easy. First graders who are struggling to read may become frustrated and lose interest in reading altogether. Don’t let this happen to your child. Follow these tips to motivate your first grader to read:

• Let them choose their own books. Don’t force your first grader to read something they are not interested in. Let them decide what they want to read—even if that means reading magazines or comic books.
• Give your child plenty of opportunities to read. Keep different types of reading materials in your home so your child can practice anytime they want.
• Create a “reading nook” in your home. Having a comfortable and cozy reading spot for your child will encourage them to keep reading.
• Be patient. Don’t get frustrated if your child is struggling to sound out a word or understand the meaning of a story. Your child needs to feel supported in order to stay motivated.
  
• Give them an incentive.  Perhaps they can get a special treat, such as a candy, or a special activity for every book they read.  It’s important for them to understand that reading comes with rewards.

Following these tips can help your first grader develop a love for reading that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

What is the Best Way to Teach A First Grader to Read At Home?

There are many tips and tricks that you can use to help your child become a better reader. Using the Readability app is the best way to teach your first grader to read at home.

The Readability app is designed with artificial intelligence and responsive speech technology, which allows it to communicate with your child just like a reading tutor would. The app will provide instant feedback to your child as they read aloud to ensure they identify and learn from their mistakes.

With the Readability app, first graders can work on improving their reading skills anytime, anywhere. Download the app to start your free 7-day trial today.

Some children develop reading skills faster than others. If your child is a struggling reader, you shouldn’t sit back and wait for them to catch up on their own. Studies have shown that early identification and intervention is crucial when it comes to reading help for kids. The longer you wait to take action, the harder it may be to help your child catch up to their peers.

Don’t wait another minute to get your child the help they need to succeed. Here’s what you need to know to help your child become a better reader:

What Can I Do If My Child is Reading Below Grade Level?

If your child is falling behind, there are a number of ways you can help them improve their reading skills. Start with these strategies:

• Read a passage aloud to your child omitting one word that is used frequently throughout the text such as “because” or “about.” Give your child clues about the word that you omitted, then ask them to guess the word.
• Provide your child with background knowledge on a topic before they begin reading. For example, if they are about to read a book on the ocean, teach them about tides, waves, and marine life before they begin reading.
•  Keep a dictionary handy so you can look up words that your child is unfamiliar with together.
• Encourage all forms of reading. Don’t put up a fight if your child would rather read a comic book or magazine instead of a book.
• Discuss what your child is reading with them. Ask them questions before, during, and after they finish reading to check their comprehension and keep them engaged.

Reading skills won’t develop overnight, but if you stick with these strategies, your child will start to see results.

How Can I Improve My Child’s Reading Speed?

Fluency, or the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with expression, is a crucial reading skill that every child needs to develop. If your child is struggling to read fluently, there are plenty of ways to work on this skill at home, including:

• Read a story aloud to your child, then ask your child to read it aloud to you. This gives you an opportunity to model what fluent reading sounds like so your child can learn from your example.
• Play rhyming games to build your child’s sight word vocabulary. Being able to recognize and read more words will help your child increase their speed and accuracy when reading.
• Encourage your child to reread their favorite books. Your child will become more familiar with the text every time they reread it, which will increase their fluency. This will give them the skills and confidence they need to read new stories fluently as well.
• Act out your child’s favorite stories. Not only will this keep them engaged, but it will also help them learn how to read with expression, which is an important part of fluency.

Implementing these strategies into your child’s reading lessons can help them become faster, fluent readers in no time.

How Many Minutes Should A Child Read Per Day?

Practice makes perfect, which is why experts recommend that children read on a daily basis. Reading every day can benefit all children, but it’s especially important for struggling readers who need this daily practice in order to catch up to their peers. The more they read, the better they will become.

It’s recommended that children read for at least 20 minutes per day. But if your child enjoys reading—or is trying to finish an interesting story—there’s no need to cut them off at the 20-minute mark. Let them continue reading until they are ready to move onto another activity.

Reading on a daily basis won’t just help your child become a better reader. Research has shown that children who read at least 20 minutes per day will typically score better than 90% of their peers on standardized tests. This is one of the many reasons why parents should always encourage their children to read each day.

What App Provides Reading Help For Kids in Elementary School?

Parents who are helping their children improve their reading skills should use every tool at their disposal, including the Readability app. This app is designed to help kids improve crucial reading skills such as comprehension, phonetic awareness, and fluency. Using artificial intelligence and advanced speech recognition technology, the app listens to your child read aloud and provides instant feedback to help them correct their mistakes.

The Readability app gives kids access to a wide variety of interesting, unique content that will keep them engaged and motivated to read. Start your free 7-day trial today so your kids can start working on their reading skills anytime, anywhere using the Readability app.