Analyzing Reading Skills in Older Readers

I want to share my suggestions for the parents of children who have difficulty reading or don't enjoy reading, because I also had difficulty reading as a child and young adult. I didn't remember anything seconds after reading the text. I was able to pull through high school and college but never excelled in classes.
Throughout postgraduate work I had to compensate for my poor reading skills by re-reading material as many as five times before I could remember what I read. This was very time-consuming, and it frustrated me to know I had to invest a lot more time in studying compared to my peers in order to "keep up."
While I was obtaining my master's degree, an instructor of a language-development course at Syracuse University told me that the difficulty readers encounter more often than not results from poor decoding skills. This skill needs to be in place before comprehension of material can occur.
The same college instructor advised me to conduct a study on my own reading habits and skills for about two months and reflect on my findings. I found that reading in quiet settings where there are absolutely no distractions, reading during certain times of day, the choice of reading material, my background knowledge of the material and self-regulation skills (reminding myself constantly not to daydream) all affected my ability to read and comprehend material. By the end of the study, I found myself reading in the basement of a building because it was absolutely quiet and there were no visual stimuli to distract me.
The process of improving my reading took years, but the results are well worth the effort. I no longer have to re-read passages before understanding or remembering what I read. I still take written notes as I read to help organize the material I am absorbing. I now enjoy reading for fun. -- Becoming a Reader
Answer: Thanks for sharing your story and your determination to keep working on your reading skills. It can be very helpful for older readers to study their reading habits as you did. It lets them determine what works best for them. Hopefully, your story will encourage other people with weak skills to continue working to improve their reading ability. You hit the nail on the head: Decoding is the cause of many reading difficulties, and poor decoding skills definitely limit readers' ability to comprehend what they are reading.