Reading but not comprehending

[Aaronmom]

Hi

My son is 5 years old and seems to read fine. However, his teacher said he reads so fast but he is not paying attention to the details of what he reads. When she ask him questions about the book, he only can answer one out of five questions. Anybody has that problem? He is also not very good at reciting the story he reads to me. Is that something that can be trained? How?

Thanks for any advice.
Sandra

[cherrygal]

I used to get my son to read a book then test him on the contents after that. He could remember most of the details so I relaxed after a few books. Now I just let him read on his own and leave it as that.

[Enbin]

Aaronmom:

Hi

My son is 5 years old and seems to read fine. However, his teacher said he reads so fast but he is not paying attention to the details of what he reads. When she ask him questions about the book, he only can answer one out of five questions. Anybody has that problem? He is also not very good at reciting the story he reads to me. Is that something that can be trained? How?

Thanks for any advice.
Sandra

Dun worry.. it takes time for them to learn
Otherwise, give him a shorter passage to read instead of a story book.

[sleepy]

The book may be too difficult for him then

[Vevey]

At 5yo, DS1 would come out of a story-telling session & told me he couldn't remember the story at all!

hahaahaa...:b
Guess at that age, they still need repetitions & more time to answer qns. Also they might b pressurised if qns r asked formally, so it might b easier to ask them leading qns casually. This, I just read abt it recently. Sigh~
Luckily, still can apply to DS2 who is 4yo.

[Imami]

My child used to have that problem when he was younger. Because he really like reading, I sent him to phonics and language classes since he’s 2.5yo and we had been reading everyday since he’s 18mth old. By 3.5yo, he was reading simple books independently (eg rigby readers emergent level). But I noticed that the level of comprehension was not there yet, although he could read the words using phonics skills or thru memory(sight words). So I incorporated discussion points subsequent to the reading to brush up his thinking skills.


Now he is doing fine already. Before he sleeps but after the lights are off, I would tell him more cheem stories just to develop his thinking and understanding further. It seems to work.

[dragonflysg]

My suggestion will take some time and effort. How about doing up some paper figures and re-enacting the story or asking him to re-enact the story? Then ask questions along the way to make it interesting? Like if the boy picks up the stick part he forgets, ask him "where do you think the stick came from?"

[Nebbermind]

Aaronmom:

Anybody has that problem?

ME!!!

I had this problem at one time!!! I bookmarked where I left off....and when I come back a couple of days to continue, I only can remember, maybe, 1~2 chapters ago.

I think it's because of distraction when we were reading and we didn't quite register what we read.

That's for me.

But for your kid, he may find it a chore to read...so he just READ but never quite digest what he is reading.

Very common...like in my school days, can read and read the history book....but never quite remember the details....mainly due to the lack of interest.

[Mdm Koh]

Try reading aloud first. He can mouth the words softly to himself as he reads. Once he gets the hang of noting the details, he can read silently.

[jedamum]

not sure how to train, but i realised my 6yr old can comprehend non-fiction books better than fiction books. interest maybe? or maybe for fiction books, he stares at the picture most of the time to try to get the story out of the picture while for non-fiction, if he does not read it, he won't be able to know what it is about.


for fiction books, i'll let him read/browse first. when we read together, i'll ask questions before the plot develops and he'll be excited to show off what he already know (i pretend to be curious and said 'let's guess what's going to happen next').