Reading comprehension can be challenging for some students due to various factors. Let’s explore some of them.
Difficult Text: Complex or challenging texts, such as those with advanced vocabulary, intricate sentence structures or abstract concepts, can pose difficulties for students. Understanding and extracting meaning from such texts may require higher-level cognitive skills and critical thinking abilities that some students struggle with.
ADHD: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can affect a student's ability to concentrate, sustain focus and manage distractions. These difficulties can make it challenging for students with ADHD to maintain attention while reading, hindering their comprehension. The impulsivity and hyperactivity associated with ADHD can also disrupt the reading process.
Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that primarily affects reading and language processing. Students with dyslexia may experience difficulties with decoding, word recognition, fluency and phonological processing. These challenges can impede reading comprehension as students may struggle to decipher words accurately and efficiently, leading to difficulties in understanding the overall text.
Limited Vocabulary: Vocabulary knowledge plays a critical role in reading comprehension. Students with limited vocabulary may encounter difficulties understanding the meanings of words in context, making it challenging to comprehend the text’s nuances and subtleties. Without a strong vocabulary foundation, students may struggle to grasp the author’s intended messages and fully engage with the text.
Working Memory Deficit: Working memory refers to the ability to hold and manipulate information in your mind while performing cognitive tasks. Students with working memory deficits may struggle to retain and organise information from the text, making it difficult to understand the relationships between ideas and follow the text’s structure. Working memory deficits can impact the integration and synthesis of information, hindering reading comprehension.
Boredom and Lack of Student Interest: When students find reading materials uninteresting or irrelevant to their lives, they may lack motivation to engage with the text actively. Boredom and disinterest can hinder comprehension as students may not invest the necessary mental effort and attention needed to comprehend the material fully.
Specific Learning Disabilities: Various specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia (mentioned earlier), dysgraphia (affects writing) or specific language impairment, can impact reading comprehension. These disabilities may involve challenges with language processing, visual-spatial skills or information organisation, making it harder for students to understand and analyse written texts effectively.
It's crucial to acknowledge that these factors can interact with and compound one another, further complicating reading comprehension for some students. Supporting struggling readers often requires a multifaceted approach, including tailored instruction, accommodations, explicit teaching of reading strategies, scaffolding of comprehension skills and addressing underlying difficulties through targeted interventions. Additionally, creating a supportive and engaging reading environment that considers students’ interests and individual needs can foster motivation and facilitate improved comprehension.
With CARS and STARS Online, you can have every student in a class working on improving their reading comprehension, in the same program, but at the specific level appropriate to them. Students move to the next level when they have proven themselves proficient in one, and students struggling with understanding a certain level can move down to the level beneath that to hone their skills at the teacher’s discretion. All this is facilitated by instantly updating, easily accessible data about student progress.
In this way, instruction with CARS & STARS Online is specific and individualised, so teachers using it realise quickly what they need to focus on for each student. They can then pivot to addressing it easily and immediately, given the flexibility of the program. Because less time is needed to find what they need to focus on, more time is available to target that area – and to work to improve it.
If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.
