How does One-to-One teach comprehension skills?
There are a number of reasons why a child may have problems understanding and interpreting what he or she reads. Often comprehension difficulties stem from poor word recognition skills and a weak vocabulary. It can also be caused by anxiety, an inability to concentrate on material that isn’t “interesting,”or abstract reasoning and critical thinking difficulties. The classroom teacher is seldom able to address these problems on an individual basis. Instead, all the children are assigned the same material to read and are then asked a series of “comprehension questions” to test understanding. Comprehension is therefore tested, but seldom taught. Needless to say, on a 1:1 basis, there are far more effective and interesting ways to foster comprehension. First of all, children must be taught comprehension skills using materials written at an appropriate level of difficulty. Very few young children are able to focus on the meaning of a paragraph when it contains a large number of unfamiliar w
