Reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of literacy—it empowers children to predict outcomes, evaluate characters, make inferences, and connect stories to real-world experiences. At Queens Letters, independent providers support neurodivergent learners, including those with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and other learning differences and learning disabilities, in building strong comprehension skills through personalized, research-based instruction. These skills begin to develop even before a child becomes an independent reader. We foster early cognitive growth and a lifelong love of reading by reading aloud and discussing key story elements such as the main idea, characters, and setting. Queens Letters connects families with providers who offer services across the Queens area.
Research reveals that activities that strengthen comprehension include:
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of literacy. It allows a child to predict outcomes, evaluate characters, deduce, and make connections between the text and real-world events. These skills can begin to develop even before becoming an independent reader. One way to do this is by reading to a child and discussing the story’s main idea, characters, and setting.
Explicit teaching, modeling, and guided practice of these skills are also crucial. This is especially true for students who lag behind their peers.
A student with good comprehension and reading skills can:
Yet, teaching reading comprehension strategies continue to receive little attention in the majority of classrooms. This is despite the past 30-plus years of research that has provided proven strategies for students to improve their skills. At Queens Letters, the Queens reading comprehension tutoring provided implements these strategies to advance reading comprehension skills for children and adolescents, at all levels.
Comprehension plays an essential role in a child’s education. It begins as students learn and identify the initial meaning from previewing a text or source material and builds as he or she continues to read. Once reading is done, a deeper understanding of the text is achieved by reviewing, rereading portions of the material, discussion, and reflection. Throughout this process, the reader also relates new information to his or her own experiences or current knowledge. Improving one’s comprehension can be done through the following strategies:
Children who have difficulties with comprehension will have trouble understanding the information they have just read. Visualizing and verbalizing help this process by teaching students to create pictures in their minds. Much like making a mini-movie of the text, they are reading to visualize the main idea. This is also known as concept imagery.
Visualizing and verbalizing require learners to apply their real-world experiences and knowledge to create meaning. By making text-to-self connections, it becomes easier for students to process, recall, and describe information using their own words. By drawing from the mental pictures they created, they can also respond to questions that need specific answers.
An example of a visualizing and verbalizing exercise would be to ask a student to describe an object or photo that is presented to them. Once the child has gained adequate mastery of this skill, he or she is then asked to describe an object familiar to them but is not in front of them. This may be their favorite toy, a piece of furniture in their room, or a pet. (Read more about concept imagery in the book Visualizing and Verbalizing: For Language Comprehension and Thinking available on Amazon.com)
For students to learn these comprehension strategies, modeling, practice, supervision, and feedback must be provided. At Queens Letters, visualizing and verbalizing is one of the many tools and methods used to help strengthen your child’s comprehension abilities. These strategies are used and tailored to your child’s individual needs. The goal is for your child to not only understand what he or she is reading but to learn to love reading and appreciate the knowledge derived from it. Whether your child is young or an adolescent, appropriate steps will be taken to help him or her become a stronger and more confident reader.
Read more about Queens Letters’ reading comprehension and listening comprehension tutoring.
Queens Reading Comprehension Tutoring
At Queens Letters, the reading tutors we work with make use of these strategies and tailor them to your child’s individual needs. The aim is for your child to not only understand what he or she is reading, but to learn to love reading and appreciate the knowledge derived from it. Regardless of your child’s age, the services are dedicated to helping them improve their comprehension and reading skills.
