Reading Skills – My Child Has Difficulty with Comprehension

By Stuart Ackerman

     Special education students often have difficulties comprehending what they read.  Quite often, they experience difficulties identifying and locating the main idea in a story or non-fiction text.

     There are some techniques you can use to help your special education child find and comprehend the topic sentence and main idea of text.

1.    Teach your child that the topic sentence is usually the first sentence in a paragraph and is also the main idea.

2.    Point out to your child that the title is a good indication of what the text will be about.

3.    Provide your child with text that is lower than his or her grade level (e.g. if your child is in grade 5, and is reading at a grade 4 level, give him or her a book that is at a grade 3 level) in order to find the main idea and topic sentence.  This will give your child the skills and confidence to work up to his or her grade level.

4.    Take breaks at while reading.  This way you can check your child’s understanding of the text. 

5.    Teach your child how to highlight important information (determining importance).  This will help your child to ‘see’ main ideas.

6.    Let your child read the text several times if needed. There’s no rule that says a child can’t read the same story or information more than once.

7.    If needed, start off with simple fairy tales and stories such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, and ‘Snow White’ and use them as tools for your child to learn how to find the main idea.  Again, this will improve his/her skills and confidence.

     Follow some of these techniques on a regular basis and you will find that your special education child will learn how to determine the main idea and find topic sentences.

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 Learn'Em Good - ADD/ADHD by Stuart Ackerman MSc.Ed.,B.A.

Simple and Effective Ways to Improve Your ADD/ADHD Child's Behavior, Math, and English Skills at Home