Reading Comprehension


"Adults with learning disabilities often fail to realize that they must pay attention to how well they understand a text as they read so that they can go back and reread as necessary. It is essential for learners to understand "repair strategies" to use when they find themselves not understanding the text they are reading. They also process information inactively and they have difficulty differentiating relevant and irrelevant associations. Possible solutions could include techniques that force learners to focus attention on the material being read."33

Comprehension is a process of combining new information with prior knowledge, a process that involves both understanding and memory. It is an active process with the participant interpreting and making inferences from readings. We know that adults with learning difficulties often find this hard to do. Finding and understanding the structure such as picking out important information, making inferences and identifying characters is an ability that is difficult for adults with learning disabilities.

Strategies should attempt to increase understanding by giving meaning to new information by relating it to past experiences, and to increase memory skills by providing strategies that trigger memory associations.

Studies have shown that children with learning disabilities can learn reading strategies, which in turn improve their reading skills. Techniques to teach learners to ask questions, paraphrase, and summarize what they have read have proven to increase reading comprehension.34

Typically, adults with learning disabilities must learn self-monitoring techniques, such as asking themselves questions after reading a passage or summarizing in their own words the material they have read. Generally, learners who are taught self-monitoring strategies experience more improvements in comprehension, than by learning only one specific comprehension skill.