how to help a yr 4 child struggling with english/comprehension

[vannah]

my neice is struggling at school with some of her english work, especially comprehension tasks. Ive recommended to her parents that she reads more, anything else I can try- any workbooks to buy?
She enjoys reading but Ive only ever seen the 'princess...' series and some high school musical books in her room. Ive flicked through the pages, they don't really look too great in terms of helping her to widen her vocab.
have posted in childrens books for a list of stories to read,or books to work from- but any recs here would be appreciated
thankyou

I would suggest that her parents read longer books to and with her, and talk about the stories with her in a casual way, to help build her comprehension skills. It might sound like something that you would do with a younger child, but could work well with age-appropriate books.

An 8/9 yr old might enjoy

Harry Potter series
Narnia books
Swallows and Amazons and other Arthur Ransome books
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Artemis Fowl
The Edge Chronicles
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Heidi
Little Women
Anne of Green Gables
Roald Dahl books
The Jungle Book
Jacqueline Wilson books

This might help as well, with practice work to do.

HTH!

many thanks for this teenytinytorya, really helpful link and list!!!

she is 4???

Comprehension and reading probs - at 4 i'm not in the least surprised. Poor little thing. Obviously being pushed at far to young an age.

year 4...she is 8

Vannah - can she answer comprehension questions about things that have actually happened? She probably needs to start from something familiar and current.

Questions like:

How do you feel when.....

What do you think might happen if....

Why did x say that to y...

What do you remember about.....

Once she's used to talking about really concrete experiences, you can move onto more abstract concepts, or books.

oh i see sorry i read it as a 4 year old and was very shocked!

Look at authors such as
Roald Dahl
Michael Morpurgo
Anne Fine
Jeremy Strong

I agree with LittleFish; dont only ask her what has happened but also what she thinks may happen next; are there any characters she likes/ doesn't like and why, if she were character * what would she do etc etc etc

Dont forget comprehension is also Non fiction; the Christmas Annuals (I am thinking Blue Peter etc) are a really good idea for her to practise her skimming, scanning and fact retrieval skills. Give her 5 mins to look at a page; headings and sub headings and main facts and then see how much she can remember.

Maybe try some audio books as well. My son comes out with words I had no idea he knew because he's heard them on an audio book. The Book People do really good 'tins' of them. Highly recommend the children's classics one, including the Railway Children, Little Women, Black Beauty, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland and there's also a Roald Dahl one. Really well priced. Think around £20 for hours of books.

I would still read to her and discuss the book (TTT has a good list) don't stick to what happened but go for things that can be inferred. Ask her what she thinks will happen next? What would she do in that situation? How does she think that character feels? etc.

Don't make the questioning sound educational-just 2 people having a chat about a book-with no right or wrong answers.

books, books, books and more books at this age. The best help with English to find as many different ways to encourage her reading. As well as books, there are lots of other ways of including reading in games, lots of good educational computer games designed around increasing vocab and comprehension, even a few nintendo ones (dare I suggest it!). Constant fun stuff - like playing spot the sign and reading road signs when in the car, the numberplate alphabet game, being in charge of following the map, reading recipes out loud when cooking some muffins etc etc. I would try to find as many ordinary ways to boost general reading and leave the "workbook" type activities to school.
My DD1 (7) finds old Rupert Annuals brilliant - helped a lot with her concept of rhyme, shortening of stories, predicting what is happening next thanks to the cartoon style picture boxes - anything like that is all good

Some really good suggestions here - particularly like the idea of the spoken books.

The comprehension question has come up on the RRF message board recently. Some very helpful answers have been given:

www.rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?t=3719

brilliant.
interesting link maverick...audiobooks a very good idea, thanks for all the practical suggestions Im literally writing it all down.