Look at the cover of a picture book with a child and tell her what you think will happen in the story based on the cover. Explain to the child that you are making a prediction based on clues. Next, choose three books, ask the child to predict what will happen in each based on the covers, and then let the child choose the book that sounds the most interesting to read.
Questioning allows young children to find out if they understand the story. Create a set of cards with words typically used to formulate questions, such as who, what, when and where. As you read the story, stop periodically and ask the child to choose a card and use it to ask a question about the story.
Visualizing during reading helps children remember what they have read. One type of reading game to support visualization involves having a child examine a scene depicted in the story, removing the picture, and then asking the child to visualize and describe what he saw. Also ask the child to describe sounds, smells and other sensory experiences.
Educators and parents need to determine if children understand a story, and if not, what steps they can take to fix it. For young readers, relate strategies to road signs. For example, a stop sign means stop reading and restate what is happening in the text. A U-turn sign might indicate that the child will reread the problematic portion of the text. Create index cards depicting these signs and use them along with the cards for questioning.
While reading, ask the child to use clues in the illustrations to make guesses about different parts of the story, such as the setting, that might not be stated explicitly in the text. For example, if you are reading a story about children going outside to play, a child might infer that the story takes place during the day because young children do not go outside to play alone at night.
After you read a book with a young child, find out if she understood the main points of what she read. The child might tell you this verbally, or you could ask the child to arrange pictures representing the main points of the story in order of what happened first to what happened last.