Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to read, process and understand a text. Proficient reading is dependent on the ability to recognise and understand words and phrases effortlessly. This is also determined by an individual’s cognitive development – such as their ability to comprehend and reason out information. There are two levels of reading comprehension; literal meaning and inferential meaning.

Literal Meaning

Literal meaning focuses on what the text says. This is reflective of what happens in the story. This requires an important level of understanding to further understand the questions.

Examples of information identified as literal meaning –

• Main idea
• Sequencing events
• Characters of the story
• Detailed facts

Inferential meaning

Inferential meaning focuses on the deeper meaning of the information presented in the text. It focuses on the ability to think about the text and draw a conclusion.

Examples of information identified as Inferential meaning –

• Generalizations
• Cause and effect
• Predictions
• Identifying the main idea

In Educational therapy, we work on the following areas:

• Inferential skills
• Summarisation
• Cause and effect
• Use of appropriate strategies to answer comprehension questions.
• Identifying related information to the questions.
• Recognizing story structure