Listening Comprehension

[JustEm]

Any tips on how to improve listening comprehension in a child?  I read a short story to my nephew, 3rd grade, and asked him to repeat it back to me in his own words (I told him before the story started that he'd have to do this.)  After I finished he couldn't tell me anything about the story.  So I asked who the characters were and he couldn't answer.  I reread the story for him and he still couldn't tell me anything about the story without specifically being asked questions about it.  Even then he couldn't recall much. I ended up reading it a third time and just discussing the story with him.

 

I'll be seeing how his reading comprehension is this week so I can get a better idea of if its following a story completely or just while it is being read to him.

[SemiSweet]

My dd is like that, she is just not an auditory learner. I am the same, I really tune out when listening, which is why we don't do audio books. I have found the best way to combat it is to have her read along with me or stop every few paragraphs to discuss what is happening in the story. It's kind of frustrating but she pretty much just takes a mental a vacation if we don't. I will say though that I've seen a good bit of improvement over the past year.

[Soapy]

He might need more modeling if he hasn't been asked to perform in this way before. Could you perhaps break the story into smaller chunks of a page or two and ask narration so from that? Another thing might be to do the narration for him, showing how you choose what to include. Maybe he's not sure what you're after. Did the story have pictures that he could use to scaffold his retelling? That might help too and then you could move up the difficulty later?

[prairiewindmomma]

Start with a paragraph and watch closely as you read for clues as to whether he's abl to track...