Reading Comprehension - Methods, Curriculum

Post Reply New Topic

My 9-year-old son excels in math and science, however struggles particularly in reading comprehension. He of course can handle any fact-recall text. But if he needs to make inferences (combine what he reads with life experiences and draw conclusions), or take the perspective of a character in the book, he is lost.
I fully believe he is capable of learning this skill - I just need to know how to help him.
Does anyone have a teaching method or curriculum that worked for this? He is currently mainstreamed and in the fourth grade.

Even now I can't really read fiction. I can't read Harry Potter beyond two pages. (My wife read the whole collection.) Sure, if I am forced to, as in my high school, I will read the whole Don Quijote in Classical Spanish from cover to cover. But that was only because I was forced to.

Highlighters help, perhaps even in two colors. (That's how I taught my nephew to read.)

The only other thing that I absolutely need to do is to draw pictures. No matter whether it's fiction reading or advanced technical journals, I need to write circle keywords, draw boxes, arrows (flowchart), etc. At your son's age, he could still benefit from those notebooks with blank areas for drawing picture. Just tell him to "translate" his reading into a drawing representation, as he reads a book along. That way, he will have something to hold on inside his visual memory.

Thanks - I really like the highlighter idea and blank drawing space. I'm on it!

FYI - your response fits in perfectly with where Noah is at right now... he loves the Origami Yoda books, and folds each character as he progresses through the chapters. (He looks ahead to figure out what he needs for each chapter, and then interacts with the characters as he works his way through; it's extremely cool to watch.) We have literally 100s of characters, made from folded notebook paper, scattered around the house. We all actually have assigned characters as well (I am Asoka!) for creative play time.

I found this forum this morning, after finishing NeuroTribes last night. I am in tears right now, so happy to know there are autistic adults who are willing to help. Thank you a million times over.

Are you saying his reading comprehension is good for science but not for fiction? If that's the case I think that more look for pragmatic language help and that's not really about reading it's more about thinking about perspectives. Drilling him on reading comprehension could make him worse if it bores him and is indecipherable, he'd be better off with whatever he can imagine about, and that may not be through reading.

I couldn't do it well but for this it was suggested I make up stories for and with my daughter and she does great now. She transitioned using historical fiction which has imaginative, perspective taking, inference requiring aspects but it was more fact based and palatable.i

Another thing you can try is helping him write stories where there is a perspective taking piece. Like breakfast from the point of view of his favorite stuffed animal, or the toast, so it is silly and fun (and painless).

We have similar issues. Much of it has to do with the fact that our son has zero theory of mind, and a difficulty in predicting expected behavior because how he would think/feel and do is so different from typical children. He focuses on details that are less important than the main idea b/c they speak to a special interest etc.

We work on it, use graphical organizers, talk about author's purpose and all that stuff; but really it is the social knowledge that is holding us back the most, and that is going to take some time for us to teach. I just plug away in the meantime.

@Waterfalls: Yes, his reading comp is great if it is fact-based info that can be found it the text. It's the inference that throws him.

I'm going to try the visual ideas suggested by @eikonabridge. I doubt the school will allow him to write in textbooks, but I think he could have a drawing journal to use while he is reading. Also like @waterfalls perspective-taking ideas - he truly hates to be drilled but delights in learning when it is silly or fun.

@ASDMommyASDKid - we have same issues with social knowledge but had a major breakthrough this summer. We found a social group that uses a guide/curriculum called "SuperFlex." My kid literally runs from the car to get to the group. They use super heroes to teach kids social behaviors. It seems to be working. He came home a couple weeks ago and explained to me how to ask another child to play without overwhelming them with his special interests.

Thanks again everyone!