Do you find that your child or adolescent cannot retain information in the book or chapter of the textbook? Do you hear them say “I can’t remember what was said” a lot? If so, your child might have trouble comprehending or comprehending the reading. Parents are often puzzled. They know that the child knows how to read! And you hear them do that out loud all the time. The problem arises when the child cannot answer any comprehension questions or retell the plot of the book.

Why is that?

The child is unable to understand the text and is trying very hard to remember the exact words on the page. Very quickly, the brain becomes overwhelmed, reaches its maximum capacity and stops assimilating new words. The child’s brain can only hold about seven words at a time. Unless they process or understand these words, the brain has no extra “space.” As a result, the part of the brain responsible for comprehension shuts down completely.

Meanwhile, the left side of the brain remains active. She automatically continues to “read” the words on the page. This “read” in nothing more than word calls. Word calling is a left-brain auditory task that is easy to do and requires no comprehension. Just like anyone you can start reading German text if you know the German alphabet and German phonetics.

If you just read that: Lassen Sie mich in Ruhe!; doesn’t mean you understand. I entertain my friends by reading German newspapers aloud. The sound of the German words and the melody of the language makes my friends laugh a lot. My dirty secret: I have no idea what I’m reading, but my pronunciation is perfect! I am calling the words.

Solution:

For children to remember the information they read, they must first have a clear understanding of it.

I found that many of my clients who are bright, hard-working kids (5th through 8th grade) were experiencing this particular problem. They were not proficient at turning the words they read into cartoons or movies. They just mouthed the words most of the time. Instead, I would like them to learn how to turn words into a continuous stream of images and not just sounds.

I found that “making movies” is a skill that can be developed in them, especially children who are prone to being visual thinkers.

Every time you read for recreation or information, you should change the words into pictures in your mind. The more these images involve the senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch), the greater the comprehension and retention of the text.

Another important thing to keep in mind is changes over time. As the author takes the reader through the plot, the time frames move around a lot. When his daughter is creating a movie in his mind, he can place events on the timeline accordingly. Which event happened first?

It is very useful if you do it several times together with them. Take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw your movie as you describe it in your own words. Also draw a time line, if the weather changes a lot. It will help your child realize that understanding doesn’t happen by magic and that he has to work hard to build it in his mind.