Helping your child to build reading comprehension doesn't have to be a pen and pencil task, or even a formal activity. One of the easiest and most natural ways of understanding stories is by making connections. Children begin doing this long before they are reading independently, especially when parents or other caring adults take the time to talk about books with them. Making connections activates the prior experiences and background knowledge that a reader brings to the text. Drawing on this background knowledge is one of the strategies that helps readers understand what they are reading. 

Thinking out loud while you are reading to your child, asking them to do the same, and thinking aloud periodically when they are reading to you opens the door to a deeper understanding. 

When we talk about "making connections while reading", there are three basic types of connections we are talking about: text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections and text-to-world connections.