Why Can My Child Read but Not Understand What They're Reading?

Many children I work with have difficulty reading. Sometimes they can read fluently but can’t answer questions about what they have read...

Speech-language pathologists have an in-depth understanding of language. Language skills play an important role in reading comprehension.

Although a child's ability to sound out words and read fluently are important skills, what is often overlooked is the child's ability to understand the vocabulary in the text, the grammatical structures of sentences, different types of questions, and much more.

Speech-language pathologists can pinpoint the areas of language that may be contributing to a child's difficulty with comprehension and target those areas in therapy sessions.

As an example, read the following sentence:

“Although he recognized that the cat’s request appeared sincere, he remained vigilant because he did not want to get eaten.”

This is a complex sentence containing vocabulary that may be unfamiliar, such as request, appeared, sincere, and vigilant. A child may be able to read all of the words and yet have no idea what the sentence means, or they may get lost in the complexity of the sentence.

This is an example of how difficulty with language comprehension can affect reading comprehension.

Imagine that you are reading a technical manual. You can read the words, but you have no idea what they mean. The problem isn't that you can't read the words. You don't understand the vocabulary being used in the manual.

Now imagine a child listening to or reading a children's story, but they don't understand the vocabulary within the story or the sentences are too complex for them to understand. This is what some children who struggle with reading experience. The difference is that most adults around the child may not be able to identify the specific areas of language that are creating the problem with comprehension.

I work with children who struggle with these issues every day. In fact, it is very common. Why? Because the ability to sound out words is only one part of reading.

For some students, they must focus so hard on the mechanics of reading, such as sounding out words, that they can't remember what they have just read.

When a child struggles with reading comprehension, it is important to look beyond whether they can sound out the words. Understanding what they read also depends on their ability to understand vocabulary, sentences, questions, and the language within the story.

This is where a speech-language pathologist can help. We can identify the specific areas of language that are making reading comprehension difficult and work directly on those skills to help a child better understand what they read.

If you have concerns about your child's reading comprehension, a speech-language evaluation may help identify the underlying language skills that are contributing to the difficulty.