I am wondering if reading aloud to a child a lot helps comprehension becasue we are always reading (still do) reading books to DS way, way above-level.
Irena, fwiw, our children's elementary school teachers (in three different schools) always told parents that the *number 1* way to raise comprehension in early elementary students was to read *to* them, no matter what their reading level or decoding ability was. I don't know that they have any research to back them up, but it's a widely accepted theory around here. We have been encouraged to not only read aloud to our children when they are young, but to continue to do so as they get older, on into middle school. I don't know if it helped two older kids with comprehension, because once they could read each of them has always been ahead of the game in comprehension. Our third dd, however, is dyslexic, and we've been told by the professionals who diagnosed her reading challenges and her reading tutors that it's important that she *practices* reading at her decoding level but that we also make sure we read aloud to her and that she has access (as much as possible) to audio books at a much higher level so she can build on her comprehension abilities.
polarbear
