Comprehension Skills and Techniques
Our speech pathology services
Helping children understand spoken and written communication
One of the foundations to speaking and communicating is understanding the information you’re receiving in both written and spoken messages. In speech pathology terms, we call this comprehension of language or receptive language.
This includes understanding concepts, following directions and instructions and answering questions. Your child may seem to have trouble paying attention, or they might frequently ask for you to repeat what you said. They may also only do part of what they were asked to do or have difficulty answering questions. As language underpins all learning, it is important to address any concerns about receptive language understanding as early as possible.
Where comprehension breakdown occurs
There can be several points where you child doesn’t have the skills to understand what’s being communicated. This includes:
- Word level – understanding of words and how they relate to each other
- Sentence level – understanding of sentences and the changes in meaning that arise from changes in grammar, or understanding longer sentences
- Understanding of paragraphs including summarising and the main idea
- Understanding of whole texts and the difference reasons we might read a page of writing
- Listening and attention skills.
We can help you to work out exactly what is happening for your child and tailor therapy according to where they need it most. We use your child’s strengths to help support the areas that need development.
We can help you work out exactly what is happening for your child and tailor therapy according to where they need it most
Download our 2 year old checklist
Early intervention is proven to be successful with children who are late talkers. We can help to identify any potential issues and work with you to provide effective, evidence-supported strategies to support your child’s speech and language development.
Reading comprehension
Your child might be reading, but are they really understanding? Reading comprehension problems are very common – they might occur because of underlying language difficulties, or because a child has difficulty with the mechanics of reading. Just because your child doesn’t understand it doesn’t mean that they aren’t intelligent, but reading comprehension difficulties will impact on their ability to learn at every level.
Listening comprehension
There are many factors that impact on how difficult it is to understand what is said to you. Consider the length of the instruction, and the words and concepts that it includes. Some concepts are an essential part of classroom instructions (for example ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘last’) or the school curriculum (for example ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘most’). Some questions involve simple language and ideas (for example ‘What is this?’) while others are more abstract (for example ‘Why didn’t the boy want the ice cream?’).
Writing comprehension
Children with language processing difficulties often face challenges with writing. This can include understanding how to adapt writing styles and language use for different purposes, for example storytelling compared to informational reports. We can work with your child to know how to structure their writing appropriately and build their awareness of text purpose, structure and language features. This includes developing an understanding of paragraph structure, summarising and main idea.
Support tailored to your child
After an assessment to identify which areas of comprehension are difficult for your child, we’ll tailor our approach to your child drawing on evidence-backed approaches. We’ll work with you and your child to set goals and equip you with strategies you can build into your family life, and preschool or school, to help enhance your child’s comprehension and understanding.
Our approach is effective, flexible and, above all, fun. Contact us to arrange an assessment our clinic or online via telehealth.
Request an Assessment
Don’t “wait and see”
Would your child benefit from Speech Therapy?
Take our quick quiz to find out
Frequently Asked Questions
Signs that a child may have comprehension difficulties include trouble following instructions (especially multi-step ones), frequently saying ‘what?’ or looking confused during conversations, difficulty answering questions about a story or event, and struggling with reading comprehension even when they can decode words accurately. Some children mask comprehension difficulties by copying what other children do or relying on routine. If you suspect your child understands less than they appear to, an assessment can clarify what is happening.
Listening comprehension is the ability to understand spoken language, including conversations, instructions, and stories read aloud. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand written text. Both rely on vocabulary knowledge, grammar understanding, and the ability to make inferences. A child who struggles with listening comprehension will almost always struggle with reading comprehension too, because reading builds on oral language skills. Speech therapy targets the underlying language skills that support both.
Yes. Speech pathologists treat all areas of language, not just speech sounds. Reading comprehension difficulties are often caused by underlying language weaknesses, such as limited vocabulary, difficulty understanding complex sentence structures, or problems making inferences. Therapy focuses on building these language foundations, which then supports better understanding of both spoken and written information.