How to Improve Comprehension Skills

Have you ever read an article or a book and entirely forgotten the information you read as soon as you put it down? While this happens to all of us from time to time, your comprehension skills may be to blame if it happens to you more often or all the time. Comprehension skills help us understand the material as we read and help us retain information.

Recently a published study from psycholinguists from the Centre for Language and Brain, HSE University, discovered that reading comprehension in older adults could worsen with age. This study looked at people of all ages. When presented with tricky comprehension and grammatical questions, they found that the younger adults and teens could sniff out the funny language more than the older adults. The researchers noted that these comprehension hiccups might have had to do with age but in a different sense. They discovered that older adults might use more life experience to complete the sentence instead of listening and learning its deeper meaning.

From a cognitive skills perspective, these older adults who had difficulty comprehending material may have relied on knowledge instead of firing the comprehension skills in their minds. While this strategy could work for many people, if you want to continue grasping information and comprehending it, then a comprehension cognitive skills program may be right for you.

At LearningRx, we have developed a cognitive skills program that strengthens comprehension skills called ComprehendRx.

ComprehendRx is an innovative program that targets the fundamental skills essential for reading comprehension. The program goes far beyond decoding written words; it reinforces critical skills that enable students to comprehend written materials and oral instructions faster and easier. Skills like visualization, reading fluency, vocabulary, sequential processing, working memory, and reasoning. The program aims to help students read faster and think more deeply and analytically about the presented material.

CompredendRx is modeled after our other ground-breaking programs and starts with a cognitive skills assessment. Then a LearningRx expert will meet with you to go over the results and present a customized brain training program. Once signed on to the plan, a personal brain trainer guides, and coaches clients through exercises within the program.

ComprehendRx uses exercises usually associated with the underlying skills needed for solid comprehension skills. Students will be guided through visualization exercises, practicing reading skills, vocabulary, and more.

We tested the results of students who did a ComprehendRx program, and out of 853 clients, the average gain in skills was 3.2 years, and the most significant increase was 6.4 years in sound awareness. View the results below to see in-depth graphs of results. View the full Research Results and Client Outcomes report here.

Knowledge can only carry learning so far until you have to learn something new, and that is when comprehension skills step in. Comprehension is vital to learning, reading, and understanding material to its fullest extent. With solid comprehension skills, learning materials can become more straightforward, and the ability to process and form conclusions can come faster.

We hope this brief dive into our ComprehendRx program helps you understand how it works and whether or not you feel like you need such a program to grow your skills. If you have questions or are ready to get started, feel free to reach out to a LearningRx center near you, or fill out a contact us form on our website.