Why Johnny Can Read - But Can't Understand Any of It

The proportion of children with a readingcapacity system for the simultaneous storage and
comprehension level well below their intelligenceprocessing of information). In summary, research
level is between 2 and 4.5% in the United States.has yet to be able to identify a specific area of
Comprehension difficulties may arise fromdeficit for comprehension difficulties. We only
difficulties at the level of single words. If readersknow that it is "Part 2" of the Reading Disorder
do not recognize words sufficiently, quickly, andphenomenon.
automatically, the processing necessary for wordStudies have found that teachers spend little time
recognition burdens memory and thus reducesusing practices that actually teach reading
available resources necessary for comprehension.comprehension. Time is often spent assessing
In other words, this "bottle neck" theory purportschildren and assigning worksheets targeting
that even when decoding is accurate, but slowdecoding and reading skills at the word and
and effortless, comprehension will besentence levels. It is far less frequent to witness
compromised.the actual teaching of comprehension in a
Some children with learning disabilities have aclassroom. More tools are needed to be available
greater tendency to incorporate personal,for teachers to help students with this goal.
irrelevant background knowledge into their textVisual imagery is an effective tool to teach
representations which may lead to poorerreading comprehension. It can be used individually,
identification of the central theme of the story.with small groups, or with large groups. Teaching
Studies suggest that good and poorstudents to "Make a movie in their head" actually
comprehenders may differ on tasks which requirehelps them translate the text into graphic visual
heavier demands on working memory (a limitedinformation.