How To Help Your Children With

Reading Comprehension

Some students read a book and wonder why the words don’t make sense. They try hard, but the story slips away, and they feel frustrated. Parents notice, too, and wonder how to help. Let me tell you a story.

There was a boy named Max. Max loved listening to stories from his grandpa—adventure stories, funny stories, all kinds. But when Max tried to read books by himself, he found it hard. He would read the words, but when he got to the end of the page, he couldn’t remember what he read. It felt like trying to hold water in his hands—everything slipped through.

One day at school, Max’s teacher saw him struggling. “Are you having trouble with your book?” she asked.

Max nodded. “I’m reading the words, but I don’t get what they mean.”

The teacher smiled and said, “Let me tell you a story.”

Max looked up, curious.

“There was a girl who loved puzzles. She worked on them all the time, but one day she got a puzzle with hundreds of pieces. She tried to focus on one piece at a time, trying to find where it fit. But she couldn’t figure it out. She kept looking at each tiny piece, and soon, she felt lost. Then her big brother came by and said, ‘Try looking at the whole picture on the box, not just the pieces.’ When she stopped worrying about each little piece and looked at the picture, she saw where everything went. Suddenly, the puzzle made sense.”

Max thought about the story. The teacher continued, “Reading is a bit like that puzzle. If you focus too hard on each word, you might miss the bigger story. Don’t worry so much about every single word. Let the story come to you, piece by piece.”

That night, Max tried something new. He picked up his book but didn’t try to remember every word. He let himself read slowly and enjoy the story. As he relaxed, the story started to make more sense. It wasn’t perfect, but Max didn’t feel as lost.

The Reflection

Reading comprehension doesn’t always mean you need to understand every word right away. Sometimes, it’s about trusting that the story will come together, like a puzzle that slowly fits. Max learned that by stepping back, the words started to make sense, and the story began to unfold. Maybe the struggle with reading isn’t about the words themselves, but about how we look at them. When we let go of focusing too hard, the meaning might just come to us on its own.