When a child does not remember what he reads!

Do you feel that your child or adolescent is not retaining the information in the book or the textbook chapter? Do you hear them say a lot “I don’t remember what they said”? If so, your child could have comprehension or reading comprehension problems. Parents are often puzzled. They know that the child can read! And they 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 does that happen?

The child does not understand the text and tries very hard to remember the exact words on the page. Very quickly, the brain becomes overwhelmed, reaches its capacity and stops assimilating new words. A 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 understanding shuts down completely.

Meanwhile, the left part of the brain remains active. It automatically continues to “read” the words on the page. This “reading” in nothing but word calls. Word calls are a left-brain auditory task that is easy to do and requires no understanding. 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 !; it 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 correct! I was screaming the words.

Solution:

In order for children to remember the information they read, they must first understand it clearly.

I find that many of my clients who are bright, hardworking kids (fifth through eighth grade) were experiencing this particular problem. They weren’t able to turn the words they were reading into a cartoon or a movie. They just spoke the words most of the time. Instead, I would like them to learn 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 in children who are prone to being visual thinkers.

Whenever 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 understanding and retention of the text.

Another important thing to keep in mind is the changes over time. As the author takes the reader through the plot, the time periods change a lot. When your child is creating a movie in his mind, you can place the events accordingly on the timeline. Which event occurred first?

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

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