Reading Help: Understanding the Difference Between Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension Reading is one of the most complex, fascinating abilities that humans possess. It’s not an innate skill—in fact, humans only started reading about six thousand years ago. Nor is it one singular skill. Instead, it’s a multi-part process that relies on many different skills working together. If you’re seeking reading help for your learner, it’s beneficial to understand more about the science of reading. Reading draws on our ability to recognize letters, decipher letter combinations, recognize words, and access meaning. But it’s not enough just to read a sentence. Understanding, visualizing, and storing information is also an intrinsic part of the reading process. Broadly speaking, you can break down literacy into two key components: Reading skills Reading comprehension skills Readers don’t just need these two skill sets. They also need to have a strong base of cognitive skills (like focus, working memory, and visual processing) to read successfully. Let’s review how all of these skill groups work together, and what that means for reading help programs. An In-Depth Look at the Science of Reading What are Reading Skills? Have you ever encountered an unfamiliar word while reading? You may not know what it means, but you subconsciously understand how to read it. When you do that, you’re drawing on your core reading skills. You’re breaking the word down based on familiar letter combinations. These letters are being translated into small sound units (known as phonemes), allowing you to “decode” them into a recognizable word. This process takes an instant, but it involves multiple sub-skills that must be developed, practiced, and honed over time. These reading skills include: Identifying sounds made by letters or letter combinations Analyzing unknown words by their letter combinations Translating letter combinations into phonemes Combining phonemes into full words Core reading skills are one of the main building blocks of literacy. Understanding how to decipher words and sentences is essential for acquiring further skills, like reading comprehension. What are Reading Comprehension Skills? Comprehension skills take the magic of reading to the next level. Reading comprehension is the process that allows us to understand words, sentences, and paragraphs. It helps us build mental pictures of a character in a story or a complicated new concept. It’s how we process, sequence, and internalize what we read. When you read a news article, you’re tapping into all kinds of skills. You’re placing sentences in order to get meaning. You’re processing complex ideas and information. You’re bringing in outside knowledge to ground your understanding of what you’re reading. All of these are examples of reading comprehension skills. Those skills include: Reading fluency and speed Visualization of concepts and images Drawing on existing vocabulary Retaining and storing key information Analyzing multi-part sentences and complex language Reading and reading comprehension skills go hand-in-hand. That means, when students need reading help, they often need to work on both skill groups. By improving both of these, anyone can tap into the unique benefits and discoveries of reading. How Brain Training Delivers Reading Help When students of any age struggle with reading, they often need to strengthen their core reading skills or reading comprehension skills. Often, it’s a matter of honing both sets of skills. With one-on-one brain training from LearningRx, you can access the specific type of support your learner needs. We understand that everyone’s reading difficulties look a little different. We’ll first assess a learner’s needs and abilities. Then, we’ll build a training program that helps target those reading skills in need of the most help. Fostering Cognitive Skills with Reading Help Programs Because reading isn’t just one skill, but many skills working in tandem, having strong cognitive skills has an impact on reading success. Through our brain training programs, students work on strengthening specific reading skills while improving their underlying cognitive skills, too. With reading help, students can become more confident readers and independent learners! Get customized reading help for you or your learner. To get started, call 866-BRAIN-01 to start a conversation about our brain training programs.