09/02/2026
Over the weekend, a parent came up to me and asked: "The teacher told me my child needs to work on comprehension. What does that even mean, and what am I supposed to DO?"
If that's ever been you — this post is for you. 💛
Here's the truth most parents are never told:
Comprehension = understanding what you read. It's the whole POINT of reading. And it's not one skill you can just "work on."
It's a RECIPE. 🥣 And every ingredient has to be in the bowl:
🥄 DECODING — lifting the words off the page (this is where all our Phonics Roadmap posters live!)
🥄 FLUENCY — reading smoothly, with expression, so their brain isn't using all its energy on the letters
🥄 VOCABULARY — knowing what the words actually MEAN
🥄 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE — knowing something about the topic before they read it (a story about baseball is confusing if they've never heard of baseball!)
🥄 THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT — asking questions, making predictions, connecting ideas
🥄 RETELLING — putting it in their own words, in order
Miss ONE ingredient? The recipe breaks.
So the next time a teacher tells you "your child needs to work on comprehension," here's the ONE question that changes everything:
"WHICH ingredient are they missing?"
That's the real answer. That's the plan.
⚠️ THREE THINGS PARENTS SHOULD KNOW:
1. Comprehension worksheets don't fix comprehension. The ingredients do.
2. Reading TO your child grows their vocabulary and background knowledge — but it doesn't teach them to read. Both jobs matter. They're different.
3. Decoding is the FLOOR of reading, not the ceiling. You can't build the house without the foundation. But the foundation isn't the whole house.
Like this. Share this. Save this. Print it. Bring it to your next parent-teacher conference. Tag another parent who needs to see this. 💙 Visit www.dreamskc.org/resources for other posters.
