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Comprehension Strategies That Work at Home
Anne Hauth • September 25, 2025
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. Without it, a striving reader is just word calling. Strong comprehension allows kids to think critically as they read, enjoy stories on a deeper level, and apply what they learn from texts to real life.
Your kids are likely working on comprehension at school, but it's important--and easy!--to reinforce these skills at home. Research shows that interactive reading with adults has myriad benefits to kids, including deepening comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). Here are four easy strategies to try next time you read with your kids.
1. Ask Questions
Ask your child questions before, during, and after reading. This encourages them to consistently think about meaning from start to finish. If they know they need to answer questions about a story, they'll put more effort into understanding it. Ask your child questions such as:
- Before reading: "What do you think this story will be about?
- During reading: "Why do you think the character made that choice?" or "What do you think will happen next?"
- After reading: "What lesson did the character learn?" or "What was the most exciting part of the story?"
2. Retell Stories
After reading together, ask your child to retell the story in their own words. This is one of the most effective ways to strengthen comprehension, as it helps kids recall details, put events in a sequence, and understand the main idea. Try the following ideas:
- Ask your child to tell you what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
- Ask your child to pretend they're making a movie trailer for the story: How would they describe it?
- Ask your child to act out the story as a play or puppet show.
3. Connect to Real Life
Kids are more able to understand and remember stories if they can connect them to their own lives. Making these connections personalizes their reading experience and makes the text more interesting and engaging. Ask your child questions such as:
- "Have you ever felt like this character?"
- "Do you know anyone who has had a similar experience?"
- "How would you have handled the problem in this story?"
- "Did the setting remind you of anyplace you've been?"
4. Have a Book "Show and Tell"
If your child wants to read a book with you that they've already read on their own, first ask them to do a "show and tell" about the book. Have them present it to you with prompts such as:
- This book is about...
- I think it's interesting because...
- I want to read it with you because...
- One thing it taught me was...
- One thing I think you'll like about it is...
- My favorite thing about it is...
You could incorporate weekly or monthly show and tells into your reading routine and make it a fun family activity.
Each of these strategies allows your child to build comprehension by reflecting on meaning and engaging in critical thinking. By making reading together an interactive activity, you're helping your child become a more curious and thoughtful learner.
If your child needs extra support in reading comprehension, check out One Minute Reader. As kids work through each high-interest, nonfiction story in this program, they build fluency and vocabulary--both of which are highly correlated with comprehension. They also focus directly on strengthening comprehension by answering questions at the end of each story. These questions are tied to specific comprehension-building strategies: finding the main idea, recalling key details, understanding vocabulary words in context, making inferences, and writing short-answer responses.
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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