I frequently travel for work, and typically this involves driving. There are times when I drive 4-6 hours a day. To keep me company on the drive, I listen to podcasts. I select the first podcast, but once that episode ends, the app I use chooses the next podcast based on my favorites and listening history. I have listened to interviews, stories, serials, and comedy sketches. As a result, I have learned a lot. But was it “reading comprehension?”
Some would argue no, because I was listening, not reading print. Some would say yes, because this is how they access print—using text-to-speech software, apps, or AI.
Regardless of which you believe, we can all agree that understanding the podcast is comprehension.
Listening for meaning is an important piece of reading comprehension because you have to listen to the words you decode and interpret what they are telling you.
As we read to an infant to lull them to sleep, or read with a toddler snuggling under a blanket, they are listening. Pictures or photos can help them focus and hint at the meaning of the words, but even if there are no visuals or the visuals are not accessible, the child will still be able to comprehend. One of my favorite children’s books, The Book with No Pictures, is evidence of all that a child can understand.
Reading comprehension begins early, starting with symbols. Young children can find their favorite movie, character, or restaurant using the symbols, brand logo, or words. They realize that the symbol is connected to the experience. This then extends to understanding stories and the emotions, experiences, and events that impact the characters. The young children don’t “retell the story using two details.” Instead, they demonstrate understanding through facial expressions, comments, and reflecting on the experience as it relates to their own lives.
Comprehension skills evolve as the child’s decoding skills grow. The child learns to decode and comprehend text simultaneously. Think about how amazing that is. Their brain is taking visual information, recognizing the visuals as letters, decoding the sounds into words, AND thinking about the phrases and messages conveyed by the words. Again, the brain does this all at once. Isn’t that miraculous!
When reading is broken down into its smaller elements, it is mind-blowing that anyone learns to do something so complex. So, it is not surprising that this is a challenge for many people. Yet, even though we don’t see them “reading,” they are comprehending a variety of printed symbols all day. We need to leverage the same strategies that have helped the child in the past. This can include direct practice in small, authentic moments, using visuals to support remembering details, adding color coding, creating a story map, or a variety of other strategies until we find the one that works for the child. All of us are different, and a classroom full of students may need a variety of instructional strategies. By presenting and teaching multiple strategies, we are more likely to find what works than by using only one method.
Students with significant cognitive disabilities will need more practice with a strategy to learn the process before it can be determined if it is a helpful strategy or not. Therefore, they must get more opportunities to try the strategy than their peers. Think about how to increase opportunities, and you will have found the key to accelerating their progress.
A few easy ways to increase opportunities for reading comprehension practice include: closed captioning on the television, handing the child a menu, magazine, or book every time you are reading, read the signs as you drive, listen to podcasts or movies in the car instead of music, pair the student with peers to read aloud together, use test-to-speech software, sing karaoke following the words on the screen, use AI to captioning while teaching.
In short, the more we expand our definition of reading comprehension, the more opportunities there are to include all students in the learning.