It’s surprising to see 2-year-olds swiping on the smartphone screen effortlessly. While new-age parents can excuse this habit as being tech-savvy, they stumble when children have trouble reading. Some struggle with alphabets while others hate the idea of reading. Let’s discuss why you, the parent concerned, are the reason behind this inability.
The biggest blunder by you has been introducing the idea of reading books before sleeping at night. By doing this, you have trained children to associate books with slumber, so much so that they read to sleep, not remember interesting stories or instances from the book. This develops a notion in the near future that reading books is boring.
The next mistake is your own lack of interest to read out aloud. Developing a passion is a continuous process and your interest or negligence has a s direct impact on children’s habits. If you increase the scope of reading through new genres as your children grow up, you broaden the perspectives of children. Or else, you can’t expect children to grow up and suddenly develop an urge for reading informative books just because they can read and write.
The third mistake is that of technology. Children look for entertainment and gravitate towards the easiest and most engaging mode of entertainment. Previously, parents and grandparents used to read out to children, who got excited by the twists and turns of fables and gravitate towards reading fables by themselves when they attained 4 years of age. But there are a few ways by which you can solve this problem.
6 steps to help kids become good readers
1. Read together
Accompany children to read out their books. You can experiment with reading alternate pages to have variation in the voices and also retail children’s interest. Once they complete a book, repeat the process with another book that they may like. Build a knack for a specific genre in this way.
2. Be an example to follow:
Children imitate elders and they’d find books boring if they don’t see you practicing the same habit. Go back to reading some of the best books you read years ago and rediscover the magic of reading. In this way, you’ll appreciate reading and sense improvement in your life. Once you do that, your children will realize the fruits of reading with you as a strong example.
3. Visit libraries
Don’t limit their imaginations to particular genres. A visit to libraries exposes them to so many genres of books that they realize the need to develop their understanding about a subject a lot to be really able to enjoy it. A book lover will take this up as a challenge and improve his/her reading habits.
4. Ask about the books children read
Reading should not end when children complete reading a book. They need to retain some sort of knowledge from it. Ask children what they liked most about the book they completed reading just now. An interested reader will come up with multiple inputs.
5. Give writing challenges
Writing down the summaries of the storyline gives children far better understanding of the book than listening to it alone. Tell them to write whatever they want about the book they finished reading. This will also develop their analytical skills.
6. Gift more books as rewards
A book-lover doesn’t consider a movie or a dine-out as rewards for reading a book. Boost the passion for reading by introducing more options of the genre your children like. Such investments in knowledge have lifelong returns in character development.
So, skip toying with immediate perks to promote reading and take time to inculcate love for reading instead.