Reading Comprehension Activities at Home

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

Why a child can read the words and miss the meaning

Some children read out loud well and cannot tell you what it said. Some read silently and quickly, and cannot sum up the paragraph.

Understanding what you read depends on at least three things. The reading has to be smooth enough to leave room. The child has to know the words. And they have to know enough about the subject for the sentence to mean something.

If a child reads the words well and understands little, ask which of these three is weak.

Reading every word aloud and understanding the page are different jobs. Each needs its own teaching.

Reading is several jobs at once. In our view, one weak skill is rarely the whole story.

Find out which part is hard

One way to look: read a page to them and ask about it. Then ask about a page they read themselves.

Understanding stories read aloud but not what they read alone is one thing to notice. It is never an answer on its own.

Then look at each part in turn.

Is the reading smooth? Listen to your child read a page aloud. Teachers reason that attention spent on the words leaves less for the meaning. If the reading is slow and hard work, start there. Our page on reading fluency activities covers it.

Is your child guessing? Some children guess a word from its first letter and the picture. To us, that is not cheating or laziness. In our experience, children often guess when sounding out is too slow and too hard.

Cover the picture. You will see quickly whether the sounding out is there. If it is not there yet, start there. Ask the school for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction significantly improves reading achievement.

Does your child know the words? Point to one or two words that matter to the story. Ask what they mean. A child can read a word aloud and not know it.

Does your child know the subject? Ask what they already know about the topic. In our view, a book on a new subject is harder to follow.

What the research we hold says

One review looked at 22 trials of help for children with reading disabilities (Galuschka and colleagues, 2014). Phonics teaching was the only approach it confirmed for reading and spelling. The other approaches had far fewer trials. So their results are partly thin evidence, not proof they do not work. Reading comprehension training was one of the approaches that review did not confirm. That is partly thin evidence, not a finding that comprehension practice fails.

Another review looked at parents trained to help with reading at home (Sénéchal and Young, 2008, as reported in Higgins and Katsipataki, 2015). Some parents were taught specific reading activities to use. Their children gained more in reading than children whose parents only read aloud. The summary we hold does not name the activities. We cannot say they match the activities on this page. In Sénéchal and Young's review, gains were smaller, but still real, for children with difficulties. In three of Sénéchal and Young's studies, parents read books to their children. That did not give significant reading gains.

The activities on this page are ours. Apart from reading aloud, we hold no home study that names them. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that the others do not work.

The activities

The activities on this page are ours. Most of them are talk, around a book you read together.

Children pick up talking by being around it. Reading is different, and it has to be taught. In our view, rich talk at home still matters while they learn.

Keep talk and audiobooks alongside reading instruction, not in place of it. Reading improves with reading instruction.

Read aloud and talk about it. In our view, reading aloud to your child still matters while they learn to read. What they understand by ear is where their own reading is heading. You can read books your child cannot yet read alone. Talk about the story as you go. In our view, read aloud for the story and the words, not as reading practice.

Stop and ask one question. At the end of a page, stop. Ask one question. Who is this about? What happened? Why did they do that? Then read on. In our view, one question is a chat. Many questions can feel like a test to a child.

Retell it. At the end of a story or chapter, ask your child to tell you what happened. Let them use their own words. If they stall, ask, "And then what?" To us, a retelling shows you some of what your child took in.

New words. Teachers work on the idea that a new word needs meeting many times, in different places. They also make its meaning clear. We hold no study of teaching word meanings this way.

At home, pick one or two new words from the book. Say what each one means in plain words. Then use them again in talk over the next few days.

Talk about the subject first. A child also needs to know enough about the subject for the sentence to mean something. In our view, talking about a topic first gives the words something to attach to.

Before a book about sharks, ask what your child already knows about sharks. Add one or two facts of your own.

Audiobooks. In our view, audiobooks are not cheating. To us, they build words and knowledge by ear. Use them alongside reading instruction, not in place of it. Reading improves with reading instruction.

Your child can follow the printed book while they listen. Talk about the story afterward, as you would with a read-aloud.

Keep the words easy enough

The reading has to be smooth enough to leave room for the meaning. So choose books your child reads alone with care.

In our view, most of the words should be ones your child can read. A few should take some work.

Suppose your child stops on almost every word. In our view, check the sounding out first. Then pick an easier book for this practice. Keep the hard book for reading aloud to them.

How much, how often

Our position is that short, frequent sessions do more here than long, rare ones. In our view, stop while it is still going well.

We cannot say how long progress takes for your child. In our view, watch the practice, not the calendar.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.