How To Develop Your Child's Interest In Reading

Reading is the most important skill a child will ever learn. By developing an interest in reading, and thereby developing the desire to learn to read, you will be giving your child the gift to all knowledge. A child who loves to read and reads well can learn ANYTHING! 

The interest in reading is developed at a young age. Make time to read bedtime stores. Make time at other time of the day, if possible, to sit and read to your child. Simple, easy to understand children's books with colorful pictures as best for the youngest children. 

Not only can you point to the words you are reading as you read, but you can help the child learn recognition of objects and colors by interacting during the reading of the book. Point to the picture of a duck and tell the child, "This is a duck. The duck is yellow". After a few times of doing this, point to the duck and ask the child what that picture is and what color the animal is. Every soon, after grasping language skills, the child will not wait for questions, but tell you "that duck is yellow!" 

Select books that teach a lesson about life. Books that teach children how to interact with other children without fighting; books that teach about giving or sharing, are good selections. Books that teach about responsibilities - how to cross the street, never to get in a stranger's car, never to steal, and so one - are also great choices. 

Children's classics are excellent choices and may well become family heirlooms that you child will read to their child years down the road. You will soon develop a child that can't wait to learn to read. 

I'd like to share a small personal antidote with you. I was raised as a child who was taught an interest in reading. When Mother cooked, she sometimes got out a book and it told her what to do to make good food. When Dad wanted to know when the Christmas Parade or another event was going to occur, he read the newspaper. I had realized that you could learn anything you needed to know if you could read. Mother had taught me to read a few words, and I could go through some of my favorite books by memory, but I couldn't pick up a big book and read it. 

I went to school on my first day of 1st grade and came home crying my eyes out, telling Mother I wasn't going back to that bad school. After much questioning and concern on Mom's part, she finally dragged out of me that I considered the school bad because I had not learned to read on the first day! She had to explain to me that by the end of the school year, I would be able to read. 

This short story is to emphasis that you want to raise the kind of child who truly can't wait to learn to read. A lifetime of reading provides not only knowledge, but fun, relaxation, and true job. 

8 Simple Tips To Help Your Child Read
 by: Linda Ogier 
Take away the skill of reading and not only books become a mysterious and foreign world, but reading train timetables, ordering from a menu, understanding bank statements, and any number of straightforward daily activities become virtually impossible. 

If your child is struggling to read, the effects of their problem can reach into adulthood, be humiliating, and extremely limiting. 

The world of a non reader is a mixed up place where only those who know the ‘secret code’ can decipher the strange symbols around them and fully participate. 

A sad, lonely, and stressful place indeed. 

The time to catch your child’s reading problems and support them in their quest to become a confident and capable life long reader is Primary School. Preferably before they reach Grade 3. 

Your school will be monitoring your child’s progress and implementing a detailed plan to improve their reading skills and strategies. But, if you’re worried that the school is not, then an appointment with the teacher is a must to thoroughly explore your concerns and issues. 

Do not put this off! 

After Grade 3 it is more difficult for children to bridge the gap, learn new patterns of reading behaviour, and develop appropriate reading strategies. 

Encouraging them while they’re young is vital, and there are some things you can do at home to complement and support your school’s efforts. 
Here are 8 simple ways to help your child if reading is a struggle for them: 

1. Make your reading time a regular activity at a specific time each day. Children love structure and will look forward to the closeness and bonding this time brings. 

For some children this may be the only intimate one-on-one time they get to spend with a parent on a regular basis. Making reading together a special time for just the two of you only takes 10 or 15 minutes a day, and the rewards are tremendous. 

2. Vary how you structure your reading time together. Don’t always expect your child to read to you. Read to them sometimes. Take turns reading. Read out loud together! Make sure it’s a stress free and enjoyable time together. 

3. Use the 3 P’s. Pause, prompt, praise. 
Pause when your child comes to a word they don’t know. Don’t jump in straight away by telling them the word or getting them to sound it out. Let them think. 
Prompt your child if they haven’t answered after about 10 - 20 seconds. Say ‘Make your mouth say the first sound’, or ‘ What word would make sense there?’, or ‘Can you tell me what would sound right there?’. Only sound out the word if it can be effectively sounded out. 

If your child doesn’t get the word after a couple of prompts or an attempt at sounding out, tell them the word straight away. You want to avoid feelings of failure, plus make sure they get on with the book while they can still remember what the story is about. 

Praise your child for their efforts. Say something like ‘Well done, you made it look and sound right’, or ‘Well done, you used the first sound to help you figure out the rest of the word’. If they didn’t get the word, simply praise them for trying their best… ‘That was a great try - well done‘. Be as specific as possible. 

4. Not every single word has to be right. Refrain from picking on every last error unless you want to make your child feel inadequate and fearful of making too many mistakes. This will contribute to their negative attitude towards reading and make their progress even slower. 
If your child is gaining the overall meaning from the story or text, then they are achieving the major goal of reading - to decipher words and receive a message. 

5. Talk, talk, talk…... Ask your child to retell their favourite part of the book in their own words. Talk about what they would do if they were a person from the book. Talk about the way the characters in the book felt and why they felt like that. Talk about interesting words from the book and what they mean. This will help increase your child’s level of comprehension. 

6. Be seen to be a reader. It’s surprising how many kids never see their own parents reading a book. A newspaper yes - but not a book! Kids are the greatest mimics in the world, and they especially love to copy their mum or dad. 

Sit down and read your own separate books at the same time. Share parts of your books with one another by reading them out loud and telling why you chose that part. Make it obvious that reading is something you personally value and think is worthwhile. 

7. Don’t cover up the pictures! Never. Ever. Using pictures is one of the ways children gather information to support their use of sound, letter, and word skills. Pictures support the meaning of a story and provide a context to help children solve unknown words. 

Picture story books have pictures for a reason. Many times the text doesn’t make sense without the pictures, and asking your child to read it without looking at the pictures will often feel like trickery to them. 

8. Last but definitely not least - make reading fun! The last thing it needs to be is a chore. You can‘t blame any child for being unwilling if something is hard AND a bore. 

Find books about topics your child is interested in. Read craft books and make things. Get out a cookbook and follow a recipe. Get out the words to favourite songs and follow along. Create a treasure hunt with lots of clues to read - anything that makes reading something to look forward to. 
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Make your reading time together regular, interesting, stress free, and fun. Your child will benefit, and so might you! 

Happy reading! 
 

Source/Reference: 
Develop Your Child's Interest article by: Sadie Chenton 
8 Simple Tips To Help Your Child Read article by: Linda Ogier 

This information should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your physician. There may be variations in treatment that your physician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.