ABSTRACT

Reading is a complicated business and learning to make sense of the words on a page or screen involves a combination of complex skills. Language comprehension refers to the understanding of spoken or written language. The development of this element precedes word-reading, with children's language comprehension beginning with a growing understanding of spoken language and the texts that are read aloud to them. Building a robust mental model depends on our existing knowledge as well as the new information shared by the text. Every reader brings their existing knowledge to the texts that they read, incorporating the new information from the text into their existing schema. A broad and deep receptive vocabulary enables readers to take new ideas and fit them into their existing knowledge. This is true if the words come from a text that children read for themselves or if they are listening to text being read aloud.