Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills you can have, and yet, in the twenty-first century, more and more people are struggling to hone their reading skills. Being a good reader is about more than looking or feeling smart. It is about understanding the world, the fine print, and the beauty of prose. Indeed, there are things that can be said in text that cannot be expressed in an audio or video format. If you struggle to enjoy reading, here is how to identify common reading comprehension issues.
- By the end of reading a newspaper article, you aren’t really sure what the article is about. Many people can get through an article, but don’t fully understand the reportage. This is a sign that you are having reading difficulty. If this is the case for you, then you need to find content that is the right challenge for you. Be sure that it’s not too hard for you to understand and enjoy it, but you also don’t want it to be so easy that you aren’t learning anything.
- You fail to understand the significance of major landmarks of literature – if you read an iconic book and just don’t get it, it may be time to find a brain training exercise, like the one from LearningRx that can help you boost your cognitive skills. This may seem extreme, but there’s a reason why books become critically acclaimed around the world and are translated into multiple languages. If you fail to see the significance of books that are that well appreciated by the broader public, then there is probably a lot that you’re missing.
- You struggle to define words that you don’t know – even if they are within the context of a paragraph or sentence. Most people can figure out what a word’s definition is if it is sandwiched between two other words, because there is a level of deduction. If you have reading comprehension issues, you may not be able to do this simple task when reading. This is actually how most of us learn new words. Once you’re out of school, there’s no one giving you vocabulary lists to learn.
- You struggle to read the same periodicals or content as other people your age – if your colleagues, friends or family members are sending you articles to read that they found interesting, but you don’t get it. Not only can this be embarrassing, it can also be a sign that you may want to get to the bottom of your reading comprehension issues.
- You can’t read for a very long time or you read very slowly – if you take a long time to read, it may be because you are constantly struggling to keep up. You can’t really enjoy something that you’re reading if it takes you too long to get to the point. You want to be able to consume a piece of reading in the same way that you listen to a conversation. If you can’t hear the words in your head at the same pace as you would out of someone else’s mouth, then you are a slow reader.