What to Do When Your Child Can't Remember What He Reads

by Amy Mascott Does the following scenario sound familiar? Your child seems like he's doing fine with reading. Give him a textbook at any level and he can read the words on the page with what sounds like absolute fluency. He follows the marks of punctuation, and reads with enunciation, enthusiasm, even expression. He can read surprisingly difficult words—anything you put in front of him. But ask him a question about what he read, and he has no idea. He cannot remember what he just read. Reading is a lot of work—a lot of continuous work—and sometimes children need reminders of how to make sure their brain is "turned on" for all aspects of reading. Here are some things you can do to help your child remember what he reads. First and foremost, if you notice this is happening with your school-aged child, please talk to his or her teacher. Email, write a note, or schedule a time when you can sit down with the teacher and express your concerns that your child is not remembering what he reads. The teacher should be able to support your child in the classroom while you support him or her at home. Children's success in school is a true team effort. If it seems that your child forgets what he's read only occasionally and you want to help guide him in the right direction for better comprehension, then grab a pack of sticky notes. That's right. Sticky notes. When a child can't remember what he read, he's not truly comprehending what he read. He's not interacting with the text and is instead just moving on through, plowing forward. You want him to interact with the text by stopping every few minutes to "check in." Assign a "job" to each color of the sticky notes. Pink notes will show excitement, yellow will carry a question, and green will mean complete comprehension. Or, if you don't have colors, you can use one-color notes and write an explanation point, a question mark, or a smiley face on them. After every page or two that the child reads, he should "check in" by assessing what he just read. He should ask himself: • Do I understand what I just read? • Am I surprised about something I read? • What questions do I have about what I just read? After he asks himself these questions, he should mark the page with the appropriate sticky note. If he has a specific question, he can write it on the note. That's it. And then he moves on. By giving kids a small focus and a reason to interact with the text, they're more likely to remember what they read because of the continual "check in" of their understanding. Soon the "check in" will become habitual—we hope—and he won't need the sticky notes. Until then, stock up on the sticky notes, parents! (from: http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/what-to-do-when-your-child-cant-remember-what-he-reads)

I Hate Reading!

If you hear your child say, "I Hate Reading", what can you do to help? I found this great article by Allison McDonald on the website http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/i-hate-reading?cid=PAR/smd/20140724/pinterest/rrblogihatereading//PAR/content/9am that might give you some tips to help you out if you do hear them say this: "No parent wants to hear, "Mom, I hate reading." But in all likelihood, at some point many of us will hear it from one of our children. A few months ago, my son told me, "Reading is just something I am good at, not something I like." I am pretty sure the sound of my heart breaking could have been heard from miles away. What are our kids really saying when they tell us they hate reading? 1. It's hard. Yes, reading is tough. Reading the wrong material is even tougher. As parents, if this is what your child means when he says he hates reading, your job is to find the right level of material for him to read. 2. I'm really struggling. It's hard to ask for help, and children want to please their parents. Reading is something children see adults do easily, and they may feel ashamed to tell their parents they can't do it. It's simpler to refuse to do it because they hate it than to say, "I can't." It may be confidence, it may be some letter sounds that they need to practice, or it may be something much deeper than that. If you suspect your child may have a learning disability that is hampering her reading, talk to your child's teacher or pediatrician who can point you towards the proper local agency to have her tested. 3. It's boring. In college, I had a textbook that was so boring I had to sit on the floor with my back against a cinderblock wall so that when I nodded off I would hit my head against the wall and wake up. Sometimes reading is boring, but it doesn't have to be for our kids...not yet, anyway. Ask him what makes it boring. As a team, take time to find him the right things to read. Maybe you skip the novels and dive into comic books, or forget fiction and read books filled with facts. Make it your mission to find interesting things for him to read. 4. I'd rather be outside/online/at a friend's house. Sometimes it's a matter of shifting schedules to get kids to read for fun. No one thinks that something is fun when they are forced to do it. "Stop bothering your sister, go up to your room, and read!" doesn't sound like a treat. Staying up "past" her bedtime to read is a wonderful way to get reading in without making it compete with other activities. More than one voracious reader was created between being tucked in and lights out. As parents we need to open up our minds to what a child who is reading looks like. Reading for many of us means reading a novel, but children can read so many other things. Before we decide that our kids really do hate reading, take time to see if what they are saying is: It's hard, I'm struggling, I'm bored, or I'd rather be outside. So what was my son saying when he told me he hated reading? "I'm bored of these early chapter book mysteries." I sat back and thought about what I was offering him to read and we switched it up together. Books full of wacky facts, Pokemon reference books, and sports magazines are his favorite things to read now, and I haven't heard a peep about him hating to read since!"