Caroline Said:

what is the best way to help someone with their reading comprehension skills?

We Answered:

Okay, this is not an unusual problem, and there are things you can do. The key point you made is that it concerns subjects that she doesn't like, so her problem is not so much learning ability or comprehension in the regular sense but focus and concentration. It's very hard to stay focused on something you don't like, as you know.

You can help your daughter at first by studying with her a little. Don't sit by her every moment, because she will (like all kids) feel resentful and distracted, but spend a few minutes and try the following:

Go through a short passage of text with her and stop after every few sentences and ask her if there is anything she's not clear on. If there is, try discussing it. Even if it's something you don't know much about you will probably have some idea and that will help her. If you are both stumped, just note it down then continue.

When you've finished the text, check back over any notes and see if some things have 'dropped into place'. If you see the links but she doesn't you can help her get the main ideas. Most reading for school students is very carefully structured to express just a few key points and those are the things she needs to 'get'.

You can also contact her teachers for those two problem subjects and see what their opinions are. It could be that several students have similar problems, and in that case the teachers are usually aware of it and may have some suggestions or extra resource materials -- even those you can find online.

Another point is exactly how she is feeling when she's doing her studies at home. If she's very tired you may have to help her in changing her routine a little. And as you say she may be daydreaming, well -- that's focus again, and on top of tiredness it could be enough to make any 'intake' of knowledge near-impossible. So, definitely look at her routine.

Unfortunately I don't know her age, but assuming she's a teenager, just bear in mind those other factors that can affect your daughter's ability to concentrate. I think you know the sorts of things I mean so I don't need to detail them here. But a question you can ask yourself: Is there any pattern to when she has real struggles with her work? Does she have good days and bad days?(Or weeks?) If so, try to work out what other factors could be influencing her ability to study. Because we perform worst on the things we like the least, it might not take much. So it could be something very simple.

Finally, by all means let her use the Web to aid her studies in these difficult subjects. It's amazing how often using a different medium will help a person to learn.

I hope this helps you,

Lenky.

Erin Said:

Whats the easiest way to get your reading comprehension skills up?

We Answered:

It's actually pretty easy, but it takes a little time.

Start by reading something. The very instant you discover that you don't quite get something, look for a word that you don't understand. It can be something technical or complicated, or it can be as simple as the word "for." Then look it up in a dictionary and make sure you really get what it means. Go back and read the sentence again, and it will be clearer to you.

Do that every single time you don't understand something, or every time you come across a word you don't understand. After just a few weeks of doing this, you'll discover you really do comprehend what you're reading, and you will be feeling a lot smarter too.

Lester Said:

Would you coin someone who has superior reading comprehension skills as intelligent?

We Answered:

Yes. People who read books a lot are generally intelligent.

Charles Said:

how do i improve my reading comprehension skills?

We Answered:

First of all, slow down. Force yourself to read more slowly, and at the end of a paragraph, if you don't understand it completely, inside, outside, upside down, then go back and read it again until you do. Sometimes that's all it takes.

There is another technique to help with comprehension, but I warn you that while tremendously effective, it is also tremendously boring when put into practice. Write an outline of each chapter of your book as you read it. Just keep a notebook and a pen handy, and as you finish a chapter, go back and outline it. Doing that takes discipline, but it will help a lot because you cannot do an outline if you don't understand the material--knowing you have to do an outline engages your mind and forces you to either understand completely or go back and re-read. It's the technique I used in college for most things--rewriting made stuff stick in my mind, and then I just went back and reviewed my fairly detailed outlines when test time rolled around. Trust me--it works really well.

But first, try slowing down.