This research examined the impact of parental involvement / assistance in reading on thernreading comprehension abi lity of grade four children / students of three primary schools inrnArbaminch. It was intended to check whether there is a systematic significant rel ationshiprnbetween the above-mentioned variables or whether there is not any relationship between them atrnall. In order to test the hypothesis, first 170 students constituting 85 assisted and 85 unassistedrnchi ldren were identified through the first part of the questionnaire. Then, separate questionnairesrnwere administered to each group of students / chi ldren to see what their environment has to offerrnas far as their reading habit at home-either paired or independent reading-is concerned. In thisrncase, their parents (particularly, those parents offering assistance)-58 in nwnber-were involved inrncompleting questionnaire, for their information is necessary to confirm the children's/ thernstudents' responses. Finall y, a reading comprehension test was administered to all the 170rnchildren / students to measure their reading perfonnance (reading ability).rnAccording to the results obtained, there is a significant mean difference between thernassisted and the unassisted children as it can be inferred from the t-test resu lt. Moreover, it isrnfound that there is a strong / highly significant relationship between the parental involvement inrnreading and the reading comprehension of the children / the student as it can be seen from therncorrelation coefficient calculated. This implies that parents can contribute something forrnminimizing the problems observed in the classroom reading instructions.