My six year old son had the same issue at school. After meeting with the reading teacher, and talking to him about it, it became apparent that he wasn't really paying attention to what he was reading at school, because it was too easy and boring. They realized he was just decoding, but thought that he actually was unable to comprehend what he was reading. Since he reads high school level science texts at home and tells me about what he read, I knew that wasn't true.
We had a long talk about how sometimes one has to pay attention even if it is boring, and that he had to prove that he was comprehending by being able to retell the story in detail and answer questions. He thought it was hilarious when I told him that it didn't matter if they gave him book about princesses eating pink cupcakes - he had to pay attention. Then we practiced at home, and he learned how to do it. I let him cheat at first by looking at the pages, but after a day or so he was able to do it. He is able to retell at school now. Of course, they thought he just started comprehending what he was reading, but after he scored in the 99% in reading when he was being tested for the gifted program, I think they finally believe me.
We also worked hard to find fiction books that interested him for him to read at home. He was completely uninterested in reading fiction until we started reading Captain Underpants books aloud, and then he started reading it alone.
Last edited by momoftwins; 05/22/13 10:57 AM.
