What are comprehension skills?

What are comprehension skills?

Introduction
	Reading requires understanding, or comprehending, the meaning of print. Readers must develop certain skills that will help them comprehend what they read and use this as an aid to reading.
	Comprehensibility in writing is related to comprehension in reading.

Definition
	Comprehension skills are the ability to use context and prior knowledge to aid reading and to make sense of what one reads and hears

Discussion
	Comprehension is based on:
	knowledge that reading makes sense readers' prior knowledge information presented in the text, and the use of context to assist recognition of words and meaning.

Examples

Here are some examples of reading comprehension skills:

Understanding that print conveys meaning
Using context as an aid to reading
Examples:
Being able to fill in the correct words in expressions such as the following:

“Open the d...”

“Tell me a st...”
Using prior knowledge as an aid to reading

This might come from a picture or other prior knowledge.
Using predictability as an aid to reading

This is helped by rhyme, alliteration and other associated pairs of words.
Examples:
Being able to predict the correct word in phrases like the following:

“men and w...“

“fork and sp...“

“mother and f...”

Context for this page:

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998