To Read but not to Read: Identifying and Understanding the Nature of Poor Reading Comprehension in Children

Abstract

Very broadly, it is possible to think of two sets of skills a child needs to master in order to become a skilled reader of an alphabetic language. First and foremost, they need to learn to decode. Learning that tetters map to speech sounds in a systematic way provides children with a rudimentary reading system that allows them to read words, even novel words they have never seen before. With practice and exposure to print, children’s decoding skills soon become fast, flexible, and efficient. However, the ultimate goal of reading is to understand what has been written, and although good decoding skills are an essential component of skilled reading, they are no guarantee that successful comprehension will follow. Thus, the other set of skills children need if they are to read successfully are concerned with comprehension. As encapsulated in (1986) simple model, skilled reading requires adequate decoding and comprehension: Neither skill alone is sufficient. Generally, there is a strong association between decoding and comprehension: Children who are good at decoding tend to be good at comprehending and similarly, children with weak decoding skills tend to have difficulty comprehending. For some children however, their proficiency at reading words and texts stands in stark contrast to the difficulty they have with understanding what they have read. Of course, there are many children who have difficulty with reading comprehension and decoding (sometimes referred to as garden-variety poor readers), but it is children who have poor comprehension despite normal decoding who are the focus of this chapter.