When children are growing up, they need a lot of attention. Reading time is a big part of this. When they are reading, they’re developing in ways that are hard to imagine. Numerous aspects of their young brains are activated when they are reading.
However, there is nothing that stops you from making reading time a better learning experience. You can use this time to build comprehension skills in your children. There are a lot of ways you can do this. One of the many ways is to have Think Alouds. Here are a few to get you started:
Link The Stories To Your Experiences
When reading storybooks, it is very easy to consider them just fiction. To build comprehension, you might have to go beyond that. This means that you need to link the stories to your children’s experiences.
You need to make them realize that some stories do happen in real life. If you’ve taken your child to the zoo, you can ask them about it when you’re reading an animal book. The same goes for when you’re reading about any other adventure such as a waterpark.
Ask them questions about their experience. Ask them if they remember anything special about that moment. It will help them relate to both things better.
Link The Stories To Other Stories
Some stories are similar to other stories. If your child understands the story, they will tell that this sounds the same as another story they’ve read. Maybe there’s an object in the story that they remember from another story. It could even be a character name.
This will help you know how much your child understands what’s happening in the stories. Reading can turn into an entertaining game this way.
Link The Stories To Lessons
When your child figures out that the stories are similar to real-life experiences, they will learn from them. After all, if there’s a lesson in every story, they can apply it to real-life situations too.
At the end of a book, you can ask your child the moral of the story. What have they learned from it? If your child is having difficulty in this area, you can extend a little help. Ask them if a particular action is good or bad. Ask them if a specific thought is good or bad. Help them to reach a conclusion.
Concluding Thoughts
These were some of the many ways you can build understanding in your children. Reading can develop children in many ways. There’s no reason why your child shouldn’t take advantage of that. Read with your child to help them understand the complex bits and pieces. They’ll be amazed at what they find out when they understand things better.
