English comprehension - topic vs main idea

While Shane's class is now concentrating on writing paragraphs - they have written one opinion paragraph every day since returning to school from the holidays - I am trying to continue to build his comprehension levels. He reads every day for an hour, listening to an unabridged audio CD and following along with the book. Shane's interest is horse racing, so he reads and listens to Dick Francis books and CDs from the library. The following along part is crucial, so he can see what the words look like, but he gets the comprehension from listening to the story. Over time, he will be reading on his own for pleasure, without the CDs.

One of the biggest challenges for Aspies (and for many kids) is understanding the difference between the topic and the main idea. If you ask your child to read a piece and then ask what is the main idea, often he will tell you the topic, or the title of the article. You need to tell him this the topic, and probe more the main idea. To determine the main idea, ask "what does the author want the reader to know or understand?". It helps to read the first and the last paragraph (very often the last paragraph re-states the main idea in the conclusion). The distinction between topic and main idea are important as this forms the basis of the article. We read something because we are interested in the topic, but mainly to understand the message that the author is trying to convey.

I try to use current stories that are relatively short to help with this, so I will cut articles out of the paper or print them off from the website and read them with Shane. After reading the article, I ask him, "what is the main idea of this article?". Then, it's just a discussion, no writing (since that adds too much complexity at this level). Whenever I see an article of interest, I print it off. It could be anything from sports to dogs to horses to construction to teenagers in schools. News articles also help him with current events in the real world.

Here's a link to an article in the Globe and Mail from October 15 2010, about stem-cell therapy for pets (that is the topic). The main idea is that while stem-cell therapy for pets is now available in Canada, there is no scientific evidence that it works, so the author wants to make the reader aware of this.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/stem-cell-therapy-for-pets-now-offered-and-disputed-in-canada/article1760087/

Enjoy!
Lisa