Parents Play A Role In Improving A Child's Reading Comprehension

There’s a lot of joking around on social media about Filipino students garnering end of the year academic awards as they bring up our humiliating ranking in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).

The PISA is a global program by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) where about 600,000 students from 81 countries took a 2-hour test, which was meant to measure 15-year-olds' abilities to use their reading, mathematics, and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

The results of the 2022 PISA show the Philippines in the bottom 10, which according to the Department of Education (DepEd) indicates that Filipino students are five to six years behind in learning competencies.

In response, the DepEd in August 2023 launched the MATATAG curriculum which focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy skills of learners in the early years, and are implementing national reading, science, and math programs.

We look forward to these changes because one of the areas that will be given the spotlight is Literacy Skills which include Reading Comprehension. We need to change the impression that reading success is simply the ability to read. There are some children who can read books independently from cover to cover. But once asked questions, they respond with shrugged shoulders, vague answers or “I don’t know.”

The importance of reading comprehension for students

How can I tell if my child’s reading comprehension skills are not good?

Children with poor reading comprehension skills have a difficult time doing these:

• Figuring out the meaning of words, phrases and sentences in a story that has clues or pictures. They have a hard time explaining what is going on in the story because there were words that they might not have understood.
• Re-telling what they have read. Students need to be able to summarize and say something about what they’ve read, which includes character names or even giving a short beginning, middle and ending description of the events.
• Remembering the topic of the book or article and some key details. If your child is doing poorly in tests, it could be because they are not able to process and retain information efficiently.
• Understanding what is being asked especially when reading Math problems or written instructions in Science. Students who struggle in other subjects including Math and Science may be doing so because they cannot grasp the concepts being taught or what they are being required to do.
• Predicting what will happen next or generating ideas that make sense based on what has already happened in the story. To be able to do this correctly, the child should have been able to get a clear sense of what was happening in the story.

How does having good reading comprehension skills benefit my child?

Children with good Reading Comprehension skills are better at the following:

1. Focusing - They can sustain their attention for reading for longer periods of time and show genuine interest in the reading materials.
2. Memory - They are better able to remember information from the reading materials.
3. Confidence - They feel more assured of their academic abilities, and in school tend to participate more because they have a good sense of what the concepts or topics being discussed are about.
   Writing and communicating - They are able to know more words which they can use properly in their writing, reports, or conversations that elevate their work and give them an edge. When my students use more sophisticated words in their writing, I always commend and encourage them. These are skills that will help them to succeed not just in school but even when they work.
4. Critical thinking and problem solving skills - They can use the information from reading materials to connect to experiences, come up with new ideas, or even find solutions to problems. This will mean scoring better at tests or assigned works because they will understand instructions better, such as when they need to follow experiment directions in Science, or when they need to solve word problems in Math.

RELATED: Early Literacy Expert: What Pinoy Parents Get Wrong About Reading

What are some Comprehension Strategies that we can use to help?

To help young children become better readers, parents need to read to them daily. There should be a shelf, bin, or basket of books that are readily available for your child to read. Books can be read over and over, and should be enjoyable for both the child and parent.

As you read with your child here are some Comprehension Strategies you can use:

• Movie Maker: Help your child imagine what you are reading. Reading teachers encourage students to envision a clear picture of what is being described in the text, almost like a movie in their minds. A good exercise is pausing and closing your eyes together to “see” the characters in your head. You can just do this once or twice as you read a picture book together.
• Life Connector: Link what you are reading to your child’s experiences. For example, if you read a story about the beach, talk about the time your family went to the beach. Ask your child what they remember from that day, and see if their experience is anything like those of the character in the book.
• Clues Collector: Children can get discouraged when they come across unfamiliar words. But if we show them how to look for clues in the page to figure out what the word means, then suddenly they feel empowered as readers. In picture books, you often can find the meaning of big words in the illustrations. In other stories, the authors use different techniques to help young readers understand the text. Point out how the author used another word or phrase to explain the meaning of the new word. You can learn more about context clues by looking at Grammarly’s article.
• Question Generator: Being able to ask questions about something they have read helps expand their knowledge. When reading together, pause every so often and pretend to think aloud by asking questions that you and your child can answer together. For example, “Hmmm, I wonder if the giant really wanted to hurt Jack?” Sometimes asking about how the characters changed also helps children become more aware of character development. “Did you notice how the Beast changed in the story? What was he like at the start and how he is at the end of the story.”
• Fortune Teller: Children who have a good understanding of the story and characters are also better at thinking creatively on what could happen next. Parents can model examples of predictions and later allow children to make their own. For instance, before turning to the final page of a book, pause and say, “I predict that at the end of the story the big hungry bear will come and eat all the strawberries.” Respect attempts at making predictions and if they turn out to be wrong, no need to feel bad.
• Problem Solver: In a lot of children’s stories, you will find that the main character is faced with some sort of dilemma. Brainstorm ideas on how to solve the problem, and point out key phrases or words in the story that you might need to focus on. Going back to the text or re-reading something to find details is a good way to teach young children to pay attention to the text and find essential points that will help them later with school work such as Reading, Math, and Science.

Read aloud with your kids

Parents play a crucial role in their children’s reading journey. When my children were young, we would read books together and that was one of my favorite bonding moments. We would cuddle, giggle, and talk. My children are in high school now and I miss those reading days with them.

But as an elementary school English teacher, I make sure to read with my students. Not only do we read poems or essays out loud, but they love it when we read novels together and they take turns reading the parts of the characters. We read with emotion and pause every so often to check for understanding.

Schools are doing what they can to teach their students literacy skills. But parents can also help with just the simple yet joyful and memorable act of reading together with their children. Your nightly bedtime stories can reap a multitude of benefits.You can choose picture books, nursery rhymes, science fiction, song books, non fiction books, or even books featuring their favorite character. Any book that invites your child to turn its pages, is an opportunity for them to be better readers.

Thumby Server-Veloso is an early childhood education expert and member of the Smart Parenting Board of Experts. She is also the school director of Toddlers Unlimited and Thinkers Unlimited and has over 30 years of teaching experience.