Learning to read at an early age is a big achievement. As a child, your parents want you to catch up on or even develop ahead of other kids your age. However, learning the alphabet, reading words, and saying them out loud may not be enough.
Developing strong reading comprehension skills, especially in this day and age, is essential for your growth and development. Understanding what you are reading is different from knowing what you are reading. There may be instances that you may be able to read the words in a storybook, but you may not understand the lesson to be learned in the book.
So how does reading comprehension affect your performance and development?
- Better Communication Skills
Through the books that you read, you are exposed to different kinds of characters, emotions, and ideas. When you have strong reading comprehension skills, you also become a good communicator as you can understand even the messages that are being communicated to you. You can express yourself well too because you have a wide range of vocabulary.
- Academic Success
Reading comprehension affects not only your language skills but also your mathematical skills. Comprehension of math formulas and equations is needed to be able to derive answers. And by having a strong reading comprehension level, you can also excel in other subjects like Science, History, and even Music.
- Logical thinking
Another benefit of having good reading comprehension is grasping abstract concepts, applying logic in various situations, recognizing cause and effect, and utilizing a good judgment. With a strong comprehension level, even taking directions, analyzing context, and connecting ideas are easier to do and follow.
While it is important to decode words and read them, the goal of reading is to derive meaning and make use of that information. Imagine if you have weak comprehension skills. Understanding the phone bill, reading medicine labels, studying a product manual, or even taking directions may become difficult when you become an adult. Understanding what you are reading is crucial for you to be able to develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally.
