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21. They often do not understand what they read.
This sign is an example of the last sign. The child does not understand when most children his age do. Not understanding what he reads is a serious problem. It can have several causes.
Vision problems go at the top of the list. For children in school, undiscovered vision problems are not very likely. Illness, difficulty concentrating and paying attention, not liking what is available to read, and finding the effort required a bit much also are possibilities. Here is the key idea. Not understanding what he reads has little to nothing to do with not trying, being lazy, or a bad attitude. These kinds of things could cause the child not to read; but they would have nothing to do with understanding or not understanding. When this sign is present, the child goes through the motions of reading. It just does not lead to understanding.
If you give a child a page to read and he looks at all the words, he has gone through the motions of reading. You then ask a question or two and discover he does not understand. What is happening? Here is what to think about. Your first idea may be that he is not smart enough to understand. Maybe he does not know some of the new words. He may not know anything about the ideas or subject area. Any of these problems could cause him to have trouble understanding. They should be checked out. But the problem usually has little to do with these kinds of things. It is more likely he has not learned how to read.
For school-age children, try this. Get a comic book and have him read it to himself and then have him read a page or so aloud. Ask a couple of questions or get him to tell you what happened in the story. Ask for a detail or two he could not get just from the pictures. If he can give you the details, he can both read and understand. The question only is what his reading grade level is. A psychologist or counselor at school can help with this. The goal then is to help him raise his reading level.
If he is at least nine or ten-years-old and has trouble reading the comic book or cannot tell you what happened, he likely has a reading disability. It is possible he has never gotten reading instruction, has never been to school, and always lived with adults who cannot read. If this were true, you would know and could take it into consideration. A reading disability is much more likely.
What is a reading disability? There are several kinds. They sometimes involve perception: the child sees what is on the page but has trouble making any sense of the marks and squiggles. The child may see things backward or upside down. He may be unable to track the line of print across the page. He may have problems keeping oriented on the page. A reading specialist can help define the problem(s) and suggest ways to help him.
Keep this point in mind. Children who can learn usually do learn. Youngsters who can read and understand usually do. If the child has a problem, just trying harder is very unlikely to do any good.