How to Develop your Child’s Interest in Reading
Children can learn how to enjoy books at a very young age but parents have to put some effort into it.
There are many schools in larger cities that are just using tablets for children in school. Each child gets a tablet and their homework and tests are all done on their tablet. It’s harder to get children interested in reading a regular book when they just are using devices all day. Many experts have suggested starting reading to your child when they are in the womb. This way they hear your voice and start to recognize words. Babies actually make noises and try to say words around four months old. If you listen clearly to your baby, you can actually hear them try and mimic the word “hi” at a really young age. They probably will grab at the books you are reading but they are still listening to your voice and can see the pictures in the book. One word picture books are nice to read to children under the age of one so they start to recognize what the picture is.
As your child gets older, pay attention to the things your child is interested in and take them to the library to get some books on some of these subjects. Make sure you make time to read to your child daily. Bedtime is always a good time to read a book to them and let them read to you as well. You can also have a family evening night and include reading as part of the family time. Each person can take turns and read from a book that everyone understands.
Encourage your kids to recognize the names of grocery stores, gas stations, road signs and billboards as you drive around your neighborhood if you live in a city where there are a lot of different stores and malls including gas stations. Make sure your child comprehends what they are reading and test their skills. You can also ask them what they think about the story they are reading.
Set some goals for your children and offer them a reward if they can read a book a week during summer break. Reading is always a fun thing to do in the summer on a nice afternoon outside sitting in the yard. They could also sit under a tree as well and read.
Encourage your older children to read to their younger siblings to help them with their reading. Older children love to help their parents and this also helps the older ones build up their confidence when they know they are helping their younger siblings learn.
Take your children to as many library programs for younger children as you can and let them spend at least an hour a week at a library. Always remember to encourage your children to read and if they have mastered a hard book, don’t forget to offer them some positive praise. This is what helps them build more confidence in their reading abilities.
You can set an example and pick up a good book yourself, read the paper or a magazine. Once your kids see your reading, this helps them to follow in your footsteps.
When your children reach the age of one, it’s important to start thinking about teaching them the alphabet and the best way to do this is to start singing it. There are letters you can buy and they have magnets that you can put off your refrigerator so they start learning how to recognize the alphabet and their letters. Some kids start by learning how to spell their name. Kids learn how to copy quickly if you spend the time with them and you can make it a game. If you have to do the dishes or clean the kitchen, put them in a safe chair and write down their name and see if they can start to copy the letters. Reading doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a learning process. Make sure you teach them one letter at a time and pronounce the letter correctly so they hear you. Once your child understands their letters, you can start to put sounds together using two-letter like “ch” or “ap”. This is a good way to teach them to blend their sounds together.
Make sure you read a book and put some character into the story to make the story interesting. You can change the tone of your voice, help make the pictures come alive and talk about the different illustrations and what they mean to the story you are reading to your child. Your child will ask more questions as they get older and you can ask them questions as well to see if they might know what will happen next or why a certain character is sad. This also helps your child develop their own vocabulary and learn how to speak properly. Children that read frequently have a great vocabulary and excellent grammar skills when speaking, reading and writing. This is why reading is so important.
Make sure you show your child that you are enjoying reading books to them because they know when you feel it’s just a chore and will lose interest. This is special bonding time you are having with your child and reading is the most important subject because without reading comprehension, their communication skills will be poor. All kids want to act like mom and dad so make sure if you both are reading that they notice you are loving it because they will learn to love reading too.
Teach your child about the different word families and words that rhyme for example. You can write down cat, bat, rat, sat, mat, bat, etc and they will notice the rhythm of the word. This is how they can learn to copy their words. Always be patient with children when teaching them to read and remember that reading together is more important at first than your child learning the sounds of the words. They will learn all of this in time. You want your children to think reading is something fun to do and the more fun they have, the more interested they will be in books. This is how you help your children develop a lifetime of collecting and loving their books.
