Can You Picture It? A Reading Comprehension Strategy

Next time your child reads something independently, ask them what was going on in their mind as they were reading. Were they seeing words in their mind or were they seeing pictures?

Having a solid mental picture supports comprehension and recall. This means your child will understand what they read better if they can visualize it while reading or after reading. This is a goal you want for your child. In the work I have done with students, the children who struggled with comprehension almost never had a "picture in their brain" while reading. This is a teachable skill! Direct teaching on making a mental picture during reading can improve comprehension skills.

Here are 3 strategies I have found helpful for teaching school-age kids to visualize and strengthen their reading comprehension skills in the process.

Use graphic novels:

• Graphic novels can be a great tool to support the missing comprehension piece. The pictures are readily available to provide visual support.

While reading the graphic novel, use a post-it note to cover the pictures on that page either before or after reading. For a child needing a lot of support, they may need to see that picture first. Can they still describe what picture was on the page after covering it up?

After reading, can they tell you what they read? They can check their own comprehension to see if their retelling matched the pictures after peeling off those post-it notes.

Watch the movie version!

• I normally like to read the book first and then watch the movie, but if you have a child struggling with comprehension, give them some ground to stand on and show them the movie first.

After watching the movie, read the story and see if they notice differences from the movie. For a child that doesn't naturally create a picture in their brain (this is a skill that can be learned) the movie characters provide a helpful mental picture as a place to start.

Character depictions will likely not be exactly the same as the book. However, this can be a great teaching moment and opportunity to compare and contrast!

What did the main character look like in the movie?

What words are being used to describe how he looks in the book?

Are those similar or different from how you remember the movie?

Describe real pictures.

• Maybe starting with a text is too hard. Open up your photo app and have your child describe the pictures to you. Setting a foundation for describing a (familiar or unfamiliar) picture can eventually translate to making mental pictures from the descriptive words in a text being read. Isn't that cool? Brain's are amazing!

Can your child describe:

• Who is in the picture, what is happening, clothing worn, anything going on in the background, movement etc

• Be as detailed as possible!

• Then, take away the picture, ask them if they can still picture what they saw and can they still describe that picture back to you with the same amount of detail as they were using while looking at the picture.

If they can keep the pictures in their mind, eventually you can start with simple text that doesn't have a picture e.g. The girl dropped her ice cream cone. Can they picture that? What does that mental picture look like?

Building skills over time takes time. This post is intended to provide a basic explanation of visualization ideas and how they can support reading comprehension.