Pupils who struggle with comprehension may have difficulties with:

• limited vocabulary
• verbal memory
• specific language confusions e.g. words with multiple meanings, homophones and homographs (“Dear Emily I saw a deer in the field today) as well as metaphors, similes and idioms

Useful comprehension techniques:

• Repeated readings: read the text for the pupil, re-read it together. This helps familiarise the reader with the text
  
   
• Ask specific questions when reading
  
   
• Use open questions to encourage general thinking e.g. tell me what happened?
  
   
• And closed questions to draw their attention to a specific focus: Did the boy take his bike?
  
   
• Draw out the chronology of the story
  
   
• Ordering the events in a text
  
   
• Encourage the children to engage in choral reading – where small groups take turns to read a text together
  
   
• Provide opportunities for word play – how many animals can we name in 1 minute? Can we think of an item of food for each letter of the alphabet?