Visualizing Reading Comprehension: The Power of Graphic Organizers
Imagine your child reads a storybook from beginning to end without stumbling — fluently and wonderfully. But when the book is finished and you ask, "What happened in the story?" you receive no answer. If you have experienced moments like these, it can be quite confusing. In conditions such as dyslexia and intellectual disability, even when children succeed in decoding words mechanically, they may have great difficulty making sense of what they have read.
The most challenging and critical step in literacy education for individuals with intellectual disabilities is the process of "reading comprehension." This is because information processing in individuals with intellectual disabilities generally occurs at a slower pace. Our greatest allies in accelerating this process and making abstract texts concrete and tangible for our children are "Graphic Organizers."
Why Are Reading Comprehension Strategies Important?
Reading comprehension is not a random process that develops on its own; rather, it is an active cognitive act. In special support education programs, reading comprehension strategies are actively employed to help individuals understand what they read. Strategy instruction incorporates pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading strategies. For your child to succeed, these three phases must be carried out in a planned and systematic manner.
Tools That Make Abstract Texts Concrete: Graphic Organizers
The most evidence-based way to help your child capture the information floating through their mind and place it in the right context is to use graphic organizers.
Graphic organizers are tools that visually represent content and the relationships within that content.
Graphic organizers are the most effective tools for presenting information in grouped categories.
Various types of graphic organizers exist depending on the type of content to be presented.
These content types may include: sequencing, description, cause-and-effect, comparison, problem-solution, and chronology.
For example, drawing a "story map" to understand the characters and plot of a text, or using a "comparison chart" to contrast two different situations, instantly transforms an abstract text into a concrete visual framework in your child's eyes.
Steps for Placing Information into Organizers and Underlining
During reading, strategies such as underlining key information units, placing them into a graphic organizer, retelling what was read, and making predictions can be used. The steps to follow when teaching your child this skill are as follows:
Correct Timing: Graphic organizers can be used before, during, and after instruction. When used before instruction, the aim is to show the organizational structure of the information to be presented. During instruction, they are used to group information. At the end of instruction, they are used to evaluate whether the individual has learned the information and its relationships, and to facilitate summarization.
Modeling and Underlining: The educator should think aloud to model how important information is identified.
Transferring to a Visual Format: As key information is identified, it should either be underlined or placed into a graphic organizer appropriate to the structure of the text (story map, comparison chart, concept map, flow chart, etc.).
An Interactive and Engaging Reading Experience with E-Rehabilitation
Having your child draw graphic organizers on paper or work with plain texts can sometimes be tedious or make it difficult for them to sustain attention.
e-rehabilitasyon.com, we take the reading comprehension process to a fully digital, interactive, and far more engaging level. During our online therapy sessions, our specialist educators project colorful and visually stimulating graphic organizers onto the screen via smartboard applications. Together with our educator, your child underlines key parts of the text with a digital pen and drags and drops information into colorful story maps on the screen.
An abstract and tedious text transforms into an enjoyable puzzle that your child breaks apart and reassembles on their screen. While your child makes sense of reading passages through visualization from the comfort of home, you get to witness their success firsthand.
Let What Your Child Reads Become Clear in Their Mind!
If you want your child not only to read mechanically but to truly comprehend what they read, discover the power of digital graphic organizers through our online sessions.
Schedule a Free Initial Consultation to Assess Reading and Comprehension Skills Here