Reading but not compehending?

[pinkstar01]

My 4.5 DS started reception in setember and he's gone from not being able to read anything to now easily reading most 4 letter (sometimes longer) words, so I'm obviously very happy about that. However when he's reading his school book I find that he doesn't actually comprehend or try and take in the story (biff and chip series). Is this normal? When does that start?

He has stories read to him every night so he does listen and comprehend them quite well..

Also to note he has a mild speech delay if that makes any difference?

I would stop each page and check understanding, it'll come with practice, there is so much to take on when they're learning. If you practice reading with him every day then it'll click.

It could be that as he's learning how to decode the words on the page (ie blending to read and also learning some words by sight), then he's reading from word to word. That means that he won't be able to remember the whole sentence or paragraph that he's read.

If he can understand the stories that you read to him at bedtime, then there's nothing to worry about.

What you could do is ask him to read a page himself, then reread it to him (so he hears how it sounds when read by a fluent, expressive reader) and ask questions about what has just happened.

It does happen sometimes when they're so focused on decoding that they don't actually take in the story. It can help to reread the same page so there's less focus on decoding. You can also ask questions before even reading a page - what do you think's going to happen? Who do you think this is going to be about? Then once the page is read go back and see if you're right so you're constantly thinking about what is going on in the story.

How well would he understand if you read the book to him?