Help Your Child Love Reading

Introduction

EXPERT VIEW

Children who read for pleasure are not only better at English but are also better at maths. Children who read for pleasure make more progress over time. Reading for pleasure brings a wider vocabulary and enables the child to take on new concepts.

Dr Alice Sullivan, Institute of Education

I believe reading for pleasure is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give their child. It is a gift of love that will stay with them throughout their life. I am passionate about encouraging children to read for enjoyment. This is a book for parents who also want that for their child.

Everyone knows that reading is the foundation of learning and education, but what is less well known is that if a child reads for pleasure it is the single biggest indicator of their likely future success – much more than parents’ educational background or social status (see here). It’s also an amazing way for a mother or father to bond with their child. The magic of story and the shared experience of reading together in the early years will stay with you throughout their childhood and beyond.

I have learned a lot about helping children love reading through being a mum and through my work. Louis, my son, is now a teenager and we have, in the course of his life so far, read hundreds of books together. I can honestly say that reading to and with him is one of the most joyful and pleasurable things we do together. I have seen Louis blossom, grow and flourish through the power of reading. I have spent a lot of time encouraging him – as well as my nephew and niece and the children of friends – to read.

I work for Egmont, a children’s book and magazine publishing company, and my job involves researching and interviewing children and their parents to understand what encourages and what hinders reading. I want to know why and how children’s reading thrives in some families, despite the myriad distractions of life, and why in some families it struggles. I also work with schools, seeking out teachers’ opinions on how reading for pleasure can be encouraged at home and at school. I regularly go into a primary school both for my job and as a volunteer to listen to the children reading. From every viewpoint I see both the magic that reading for pleasure brings, and the huge gap left if children don’t experience it.

So my reasons for writing this book are to share what I know about helping children to love reading for pleasure and to explain why it is so important that they do.

Before I explore some of the fundamentals of childhood reading, I have some questions for you to think about.

• Do you consciously make sure there is some quiet time and that you have a routine for your child to read for pleasure?

• Do you regularly read to and with your child?

• Are all sorts of books and other reading materials, such as magazines, easily accessible and visible at home?

• Do you have rules limiting the amount of screen time your child can have?

• Does your child see you read for pleasure and do you make a point of having time away from screens?

If you answered no to any of these, read on! (And don’t worry, you are not alone.)

How the book works

There is advice from the early years all the way through to the teens, so whatever age your child is when you come to this book you can find plenty of help and ideas. But to encourage a love of reading, the earlier you start the better. It allows the maximum time for your child to grow up with reading and for the love of it to take root and become part of their life.

Although the chapters are divided into age groups, they are guidelines only. I can’t stress enough that all children are different, that they develop at different speeds and that there is no such thing as a typical child. So if your child is not yet at the reading stage I talk about, don’t worry, don’t get stressed, don’t nag your child, just enjoy the special time you spend together reading. It will stick eventually.

Each chapter has advice on the reading habit, what the reading home should be like, how to read aloud and with your child, a list of handy Dos and Don’ts and some broad pointers to developmental stages in childhood appropriate to the age range. All of this is based on my research with families and schools, as well as my personal experiences. There are also comments from three specialists: David Reedy, General Secretary of the United Kingdom Literacy Association and a literacy expert; Dr Amanda Gummer, a research psychologist and child development expert; and Dr Aric Sigman biologist and psychologist, who works on raising awareness among children, parents and doctors of the potential impact of electronic media and screen dependency.

Why is reading for pleasure vital?

This book is not about the academic importance of reading – there is little or no debate about that (or at least there shouldn’t be). This book is about creating a lifelong love of reading for pleasure, because above all else there are so many wonderful things that reading brings to children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. It feeds their imagination, helps them to empathise and it even improves their sleeping patterns. And reading is a really important element of family life. It provides a connection between you and your child from the very early days through to teens and beyond. It’s a strong ‘glue’ for your relationship, bringing you closer together through the sharing of reading and stories. It helps build long-lasting family ties and provides a shared set of stories and experiences that are unique to your family.

EXPERT VIEW

Families who enjoy reading have more opportunities for discussion, developing empathy and attachment. Reading as a skill also boosts confidence in children as they are able to self-teach almost any subject once they have learned to read.

Dr Amanda Gummer, child development expert

Without reading, childhood is poorer: children are missing out on one of life’s great pleasures and the huge advantages that reading can bring. I talked with a teaching assistant who works with children who don’t have happy lives – she sums up very well what reading can do:

I work individually with the children who really struggle with reading. I spend extra time with them to support their learning and afterwards I often read to them. I will never forget one boy. He was 14 and a ‘problem’ child, always in trouble, aggressive, could barely read for himself and deprived in lots of ways. Over the weeks, I worked through the Alex Rider stories with him and he loved them. One day when I was reading aloud to him this troubled boy leaned over and rested his head on my shoulder. It made me so sad. We are not allowed to touch, much less hug the pupils, but he so needed it. It made me realise that reading is so much more than just the story.

Caroline, teaching assistant

EXPERT VIEW

When children and young people are engaged in reading they learn crucially important lessons which will stand them in good stead throughout their lives. They learn that reading is fulfilling and that you do it for a variety of different purposes. Sometimes it is hard-going, but children develop the understanding that if they keep going they will achieve fulfilment and pleasure. This happens with all kinds of reading material, including novels, poems and information books.

David Reedy, literacy expert

You would think that with all these benefits reading would be really widespread. Yet, through my work and observations, I have seen children across the entire social scale who do not benefit from it and it truly makes me sad. I hope writing this book will help change things.

Why doesn’t reading happen?

There are lots of reasons why children’s reading is struggling. Its position, as a staple of entertainment and relaxation, has become challenged by hectic family lives and a simple lack of time; there has been too much emphasis placed on reading as a skill and not as a pleasure; and it has suffered in comparison to shiny new gadgets, devices and screen time in general.

Of course the age range covered in this book encompasses all of childhood so the demands and distractions vary hugely depending on the age of your child. In the pre-school years, you will have a lot more control over what your child gets up to. When school starts, the demands of after-school activities, clubs, homework and the wish to be with friends, will all impinge on the time you have together, and the time your child has separately, to read.

Meanwhile technology controls so much of the time available these days. Children of two won’t be texting their friends (yet!), but they may well be playing games on a mobile phone. Teenagers will be texting their friends as well as playing games on their phone. Throughout the book I have provided age- or developmental-stage specific advice about how to free up time, regardless of the daily demands, to help your child enjoy reading.

One of the things that parents most often tell me is that they wish their child would read for pleasure, or read more than they do. Often they sound as if they think it’s a lost cause. But it really is possible to change your family’s and your child’s habits. You just need to get involved to help make it happen.

The trouble is that we live in a very challenging world where time and energy are routinely sapped. As parents we are the ones who keep the show on the road, and we are under constant pressure as we try to juggle working life with home life, getting children up and to school, focusing attention on our work, their needs, meals and clean clothes, keeping the house in some semblance of order and supervising homework. Parents have told me they feel overwhelmed. The idea of making time each day for their child’s reading, beyond schoolwork, seems like yet another thing to do.

Don’t despair if this sounds like your life. The good news is it is not hard to find time for reading and it is absolutely not another chore. In fact it’s a huge pleasure for you and your child. You will come to cherish the time you spend together.

EXPERT VIEW

Reading together can be a way of relaxing before bedtime and may promote more restful, easier sleep, so it’s well worth the time spent. And children benefit hugely from having you to themselves for a period of time, even if it’s just ten minutes.

Dr Amanda Gummer

One of my recent research projects involved a very simple task for families with children at primary school. It was over a summer holiday and I asked parents to commit to at least ten minutes every day reading to or with their child. The results were amazing! In nearly every case the amount of reading and the enthusiasm for reading increased markedly. The response of Tariq (age 8) when he was back at school after the holidays was typical of the ones I got from just about all the children: ‘I would like to read more and more each day. I love reading with my mum and dad.’ One mum told me that before the project her daughter did not read for pleasure very much. Time was the main problem and the lack of a reading routine exacerbated it. The mother felt very guilty. After the holidays had ended, Rose (age 6) simply said ‘I enjoyed it. I felt jolly and excited. When my mum finished reading I wanted her to read more.’ This was on the back of simply setting aside ten minutes each day.

What you need to do

As you read through the book, you’ll find lots of ideas and tips about how to read to and with your child, how to make your home a ‘reading home’ and so on. I just want to talk briefly about the fundamentals that underpin the whole ‘project’ of turning your child into a lifelong reader.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

• If your child loves to draw, do jigsaw puzzles or read maps, then they might enjoy books with maps, lots of illustrations and interactivity. At picture book age The Jolly Postman might fit the bill; at older ages the Tintin series or Shaun Tan books such as The Arrival. Try the Big Picture Press’ Maps book.

• If your child loves being active, playing sport, dancing, or doing things with their hands, try books about children that are like them. Perhaps the Football Academy series, or a classic such as Ballet Shoes. For non-fiction consider The Football Book or Stitch-by-Stitch.