Reading Comprehension

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My son is hyperlexic so his fluency is aces but he is currently having issues with comprehension. He has trouble reading author intent, making inferences and answering "why" questions. He answers a lot of the questions with what he wishes was in the story vs, what is really there. He also puts more weight on things in the story that he likes vs. what is intended to be important. Does anyone know of any good free (or cheap) resources to help with reading comprehension that are geared for those on the spectrum. He especially struggles with fiction. Just repetition is not going to help. He is 7 and has been reading for 5 years.

I always had issues with reading comprehension. I have to read books for instance that is for children or teens. The Harry Potter or Twilight series is simple enough to read. I tried reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy but got confused. In 7th grade or so I did go to a learning center since my reading level was low, but it went up after that. They don't have this learning center anymore. At least I never see commercials for it. It's similar to Sylvan Learning Center. I was in learning disabled classes in 6-8th grades. I did have Basic Skills throughout high school where I get assistance in homework or I took tests in the room and got extra time. I also got extra time to do my SATs which helped a lot. Back then I wasn't diagnosed with aspergers, just learning disability. It wasn't until my late 20s that I got a complete diagnosis. Learning disability AND aspergers. What a great combo.

What is hyperlexic?

might be something to look into, our local library has certified teachers who help out with reading and math. Its free all you have to do is sign up. Maybe look into your library! Free is always good

My son is 7, reads really well...his comprehension is so far fine. He has other issues with reading like skipping lines, losing place, omiting parts of sentneces. If I sit with him and point or keep him on track, his reading is perfect. Left alone...he has those issues.

good luck!

luvsterriers,

Hyperlexic basically means fluency is better than comprehension. Usually it involves and obsession with letters, numbers and symbols. It can imply early reading, but not always.

My son has always loved to read, and it calms him, though he is not always reading for meaning, if that makes sense. Sometimes he'll just visually scan the words to self-soothe. He has been reading for a long time, but does not enjoy most fiction other than the really silly stuff because the social content of most fiction is too confusing and uninteresting to him. He does much better with special interest non-fiction, but even then has a bit of trouble with understanding what the main point is, or what the objective of the author was.

I have had similar issues myself, but I was able to fake it better, if that makes sense.

Is he in public school? If so, are you getting any support from Spec Ed? At 7 yo, the school should be concerned about his low reading comprehension and should be working on it with him.

He is in public school. The teacher is aware of his issues, and as helpful as she can be given everything else. He is not going to qualify for other help yet because his grades are not below honor roll, yet. There are enough rote questions to keep his reading grades good enough, although not quite what they have been. It is more me being proactive, because I don't want to wait for his grades to be "bad enough." I go through his homework with him and I can see what he struggles with, and I can tell when I get his classwork back.

My son was much like this at that age. He mostly only read non-fiction books because he could not understand much of anything when reading fiction books. He was not hyperlexic, though. Learning to read was a struggle for him.

I'm not even sure why I am responding because I have no advice LOL! But I can say that now that he is in 6th grade, his comprehension appears to have caught up to his peers. Nothing that I tried seemed to help, but time and maturity did.

My daughter is 13 and having increasing difficulties in this area. Here is the resource that was recommended by the SLP. DD can't get it to see the SLP for 1.5-2 years, but my phone call with her was very helpful; if you're entitled to SLP services I'm sure they would be very valuable.
http://www.linguisystems.com/products/p ... ch?topic=4
We got a kit for hyperlexia and autism, and my DD is using it with her tutor, so all of that came out of our budget. However, the Methods & Resource teacher working with her has a kit for younger children that he lends out, so that might be a way of getting the material too.
I haven't had much feedback yet from my daughter on the kit (which is a bit complex but obviously very thorough), but she has been enjoying these workbooks that we got her:
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0439554128/
HTH,
J

My daughter has these issues as well, although she is not hyperlexic. She has trouble visualizing a picture of what is happening with the story, therefore cannot keep track of who's who and who's doing what. I was told to have her read a paragraph or so aloud and then stop to talk about the paragraph. Asking questions like "what do you think the teacher looks like?" and "why do you think the teacher said that?", etc. That helps them build the story in their mind and allows them to process the parts of the story one by one. This has helped a bit although my daughter doesn't have much patience for it. Espcially when there are figures of speech or confusing narratives. I am hoping this is a developmental thing which will improve over time. My daughter is 9.5 years old.

Thanks, everyone,

Patience is a big problem because my son want to finish quickly as that seems to be how he defines reading success. I have been asking him questions about the reading he is assigned for homework, so I can get an idea of how his mind operates. He has trouble with character theory of mind, author theory of mind etc. Since theory of mind is one of his big issues in general, I don't know if there is much else I can do about that other than to prompt him to think about how others think in ways that might be different from how he thinks. Then I think I have to wait for a light bulb to come on in his mind.

He has trouble answering test questions that have to do with answering a question about the story and giving supporting details from the story, too. He is not able to get his mind around that I think in part because it involves answering "why" questions which he really cannot do. I think I will have to try to break these things into steps somehow.

The tiny essay questions really throw him for a loop, and I know those are just going to get increasingly more involved and he can't even handle the ones he has now.

My son who is 6 and in first grade receives Speech Therapy for Pragmatic Language and they deal with this issue there! This one of his IEP goals this year to read subtext in literature and to understand the social motivation of characters. So, maybe that route could be looked at for yours? It HAS been very helpful. He still prefers fact based stories... and, in fact, the last fictional book I read with him at bedtime, he spent the whole time asking questions about punctuation. I'm not sure he even knew what the story was about!! ! He, right now, can read the WORDS in a 4th or 5th grade book, but is behind or low average compared to his peers in comprehension.

Asking him reading questions would help. I've had the same problem, though it wasn't identified until university They recommended trying the SQ3R reading technique and that has helped out. Also, make sure he has enough time to complete the task - I needed extra time for reading so I could comprehend the material.