Alison David - Help Your Child Love Reading

Make a commitment

First you need to make a commitment to get involved and stay involved, probably for longer than you think. It is not a quick fix. You need to share with them and encourage them well into their teens, creating a rich environment for reading for pleasure to flourish.

Avoid putting pressure on your child

The point about reading for pleasure is that it is for pleasure. Don’t stress about the level your child is reading at or about the subject matter or format – the point is that they are reading. I’ve met many families where school reading becomes the priority. In the primary school years parents will talk about reading homework and focus on their child moving up the reading levels. I have also seen plenty of families where a bedtime story happens much less – or even not at all – because it is replaced by the child doing their school reading. Of course it’s vital that our children learn to read. The world is competitive and they need to read to do well at school. But if we are not careful we can give them a message that reading is something they have to do, that it’s a chore, that it’s just homework. In their minds it can become no fun. If children feel pressured we can easily turn them off reading.

EXPERT VIEW

One of the best ways to take the pressure off is for them to see you enjoying reading and for you to talk to them about an interesting book you’ve read recently. Children learn by copying and you are your child’s version of ‘normal’, so if you read for pleasure, they will expect to grow up reading too.

Dr Amanda Gummer

Don’t make assumptions

There is a prevailing assumption that once children can read, they will read. Not so! Quite simply, many children don’t want to read because they don’t associate it with pleasure. Getting your child to read for pleasure is much more than getting them to the point where they can read independently, and your role in this is really, really important. Let the school take the lead on teaching reading and support the school in this by listening to your child read their school books. However, your focus should be primarily on instilling the love of reading. If the focus is on the pleasure of it and children grow to love it, the rest will follow. Together with the school you will create a reader.

Children who have parental support at home and read for pleasure have a much wider range of vocabulary, and their verbal reasoning is much more advanced than those who do not. Their education journey is going to be much more rapid than those children who don’t read for pleasure.

East Midlands primary school teacher

Reclaim quiet time

Our children’s lives are conspicuously lacking in quiet time and this is, of course, when reading happens. Lack of quiet time is probably one of the biggest challenges to children’s reading for pleasure today, so carve out time when all screens are off (including your own!) and when interruptions are kept to a minimum.

Understand today’s child

Parents often say to me ‘I don’t understand why my child doesn’t read because I used to love it so much.’ I can say with certainty if you contrast your own childhood with your child’s you can see why: after-school clubs, homework, 24/7 on-tap entertainment from consoles, phones, laptops and television – all these things compete successfully with reading.

Think about when you were a child. You will have some memories of technology, but how much will depend on how old you are! In the 1970s your family might have played the tennis game Pong through the TV, in the 1980s you may have played Space Invaders in arcades or had an Amstrad computer. Gradually through the 1990s and beyond, more families got PCs and computer gaming gained in popularity.

But whatever you had access to, I can guarantee there is vastly more of it in your child’s world now. You would have had plenty of time where there was not much to do, when you were at a loose end and so would have picked up a book. I think many adults who love to read quite possibly came to it in the first place for want of anything else to do. This isn’t as odd as it might sound: reading is nothing more than a habit, and like all habits it needs time to establish itself.

EXPERT VIEW

Today, there is a reduction in reading print texts (books, magazines, etc.) and a significant increase in screen time. An argument can be made that children are reading lots on screen – instructions, social media messages – but it is the reading of extended texts that is diminishing, in other words books that take ideas and develop them over a sequence of episodes or sections. Children have to learn that not all reading can be done in bite-size pieces but that there is pleasure, purpose and deeper fulfilment in longer reading experiences.

David Reedy

Of course, time is the one thing our children don’t have a lot of and screen time is the handiest and quickest fix when boredom strikes. Our children have so little time when their minds can be still, the likelihood of them picking up a book for ten minutes or an hour is so much less than when we were growing up. Reading needs quiet time to take root and grow. Since lives today are very short of this we need to create that time for our children. So, don’t book activities after school every day, have a day or two when reading is the thing to look forward to.

Help them with reading choices

Ensuring your child has plenty of reading choices is an important part of helping your child love reading. If there are new and exciting things to read, this should be a great encouragement. The trouble is, although there is a huge variety of books to choose from, many children don’t get to see them. Many retailers only stock the big names and high-profile newly published books. There is a vast choice behind all this, available in so many different places.

Have a look in libraries and charity and secondhand shops; talk to teachers, friends, your child’s friends and their parents; or go online to look at reading platforms there. The world really is awash with good and interesting things to read – booksellers do not have a monopoly on this. And remember, all reading is good reading, so include comics, magazines, graphic novels, even newspapers as they get older.

As your child develops interests you can pick up on these as ways into reading. Everything they enjoy can be used to inspire them to read, from interests and hobbies to having favourite authors and choosing more by the same person, to getting into a series and working through it, to reading books that mirror experiences like the first time on a plane or at the dentist. Once you start thinking about all the things your child experiences and is involved in, you will find inspiration for new reading material.

Think about what interests your child and what he or she is good at. Whatever it is, you will be sure to find something appealing to read that reflects their enthusiasms. This should motivate them and inspire them to read. Of course interests come and go, but there is always something to reflect their current fascination or obsession. Here are some suggestions of different types of reading material for a range of ages. This list is really the tip of the iceberg; there is masses of choice out there, both fiction and information books, and something interesting for even the most picky child to read. I do hope it gives you some ideas.