Why Johnny Can Read- But Can't Understand

The proportion of children with a reading comprehension level well below their intelligence level is between 2 and 4.5% in the United States. Comprehension difficulties may arise from difficulties at the level of single words. If readers do not recognize words sufficiently, quickly, and automatically, the processing necessary for word recognition burdens memory and thus reduces available resources necessary for comprehension. In other words, this "bottle neck" theory purports that even when decoding is accurate, but slow and effortless, comprehension will be compromised.

Some children with learning disabilities have a greater tendency to incorporate personal, irrelevant background knowledge into their text representations which may lead to poorer identification of the central theme of the story. Studies suggest that good and poor comprehenders may differ on tasks which require heavier demands on working memory (a limited capacity system for the simultaneous storage and processing of information). In summary, research has yet to be able to identify a specific area of deficit for comprehension difficulties. We only know that it is "Part 2" of the Reading Disorder phenomenon.

Studies have found that teachers spend little time using practices that actually teach reading comprehension. Time is often spent assessing children and assigning worksheets targeting decoding and reading skills at the word and sentence levels. It is far less frequent to witness the actual teaching of comprehension in a classroom. More tools are needed to be available for teachers to help students with this goal.

Visual imagery is an effective tool to teach reading comprehension. It can be used individually, with small groups, or with large groups. Teaching students to "Make a movie in their head" actually helps them translate the text into graphic visual information.