When I was homeschooling my daughter, I read a short story to her daily and had her listen to the words rather than seeing the pictures first. To help her with reading comprehension, I asked her questions after the story was over. I added both simple and complex questions that fit her age. The simple questions were mostly things that she could recall hearing in the story (facts). The complex questions asked for her opinion on things that happened or it required her to think of similar situations (similarities/differences).
After the verbal explanations of the book, I asked her to draw one image of what the story was about. She explained her drawing and was able to tell me the story in more detail. Incorporating both a conversation + drawing of the book she had just heard, it helped my daughter fully understand the story.
I have noticed that this helped her improve her listening skills in the process. Before, she would want to only read picture books and she got bored easily when being read to. Now we read chapter books to her without pictures and she is able to listen and enjoy the story. Having her practice creating her own artwork to show the story eventually helped her to easily create images in her head when being read a story.
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