SLPs and reading teachers: Mental imagery boosts reading comprehension. Here are tips on teaching students how to create mental imagery when reading or being read to!

In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf. One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and pop! Out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. “I’m hungry!” He started to look for some food.As you read the excerpt above, what do you picture?The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the quintessential children’s picture book. And while we all love Eric Carle’s colorful, interactive illustrations, our minds are capable of painting similarly vivid images. If we use mental imagery to create a movie in our minds, we don’t even need illustrations to know what’s going on!<h2>Constructing Mental Pictures Can Increase Reading Comprehension</h2>It’s important to create mental pictures while we read or are being read to, but it’s a skill that’s not always explicitly taught. Kids can develop this critical skill, which can aid in boosting memory and recall, thereby improving overall reading comprehension. Here’s how:<h2>Teaching Students How to Use Mental Imagery for Reading Comprehension</h2><ol><li>Model for students – Read a selection aloud, then tell students what you pictured in your mind. Read another selection, and have students tell you what they pictured.</li><li>Illustrate on paper – Have students listen to a selection and then draw it on paper. Afterward explain that just as they drew a picture on paper, you want them to “draw” a picture in their imaginations as you read.</li><li>Explore different senses – Read a selection with a lot of sensory imagery. Ask students to describe what they imagine hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling.</li><li>Compare mental imagery to a movie – Remind students to “make a mind movie.” Show a clip of a video or movie, and tell students they can create scenes like this in their minds while reading or being read to.</li><li>Connect to life – Encourage students to make connections to similar or different things in their lives. For example, nature, school, their neighborhood, people they know, places they have been, other stories they have read.</li><li>Reread and reimagine – Remind students that rereading is another strategy good readers employ. When they reread, they can reimagine the story to help understand what is going on and improve comprehension.</li></ol>Have fun teaching your students about strategies for creating mental imagery!And please join us for an exciting webinar all about this topic from the Cross Country Education team:Mental Imagery to Support Reading ComprehensionMarch 16, 2022 at 1 p.m. Pacific TimeBarbara Gutierrez, EdD, CCC-SLP<a href="https://www.crosscountryeducation.com/webinar-registration-mental-imagery" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Register for the webinar now</a>!