Getting a child to love reading or helping reluctant young readers is a challenge faced by most parents. Kids do learn reading skills at school but developing reading as a habit and associating pleasure with reading is best inculcated in children by the parents.
Get them Started
One of the easiest and the most effective way to encourage children to start reading is by getting them interested in what the book holds. This is best done by reading aloud their favourite poems or the latest comic books. Once a child gets hooked on to a few characters, his own curiosity would take care of him getting genuinely interested in reading.
For this, the parents need to start off early. Even a toddler can see pictures and react to them if the parent is holding the book and helps the child associate each picture with a sound or an exaggerated expression. This kind of reading time should be planned without the distraction of a TV or the mobile phones ringing.
Once a child develops a particular interest, ask him to read a few pages to you. This helps to develop the child’s confidence and elocution and public speech talents. Further, the parents can act as the audience and make sure that the child reads and pronounces the words correctly.
A Reading Stimulus
Simple tricks like always having books and magazines around the house is a good way to make the child realise that books are an essential and commonly-found article in the house. Sooner or later, the child is bound to be fascinated by some particular theme or characters in some magazine or book. It is a smart idea to start a small, well-kept home library for children where then can sit and read and even borrow books for their friends.
Allowing little children to touch or smell and even hold books can make them feel associated with books. For this purpose, parents should think about getting durable books and pick paperbacks or plastic-covered books for smaller kids. When reading out aloud, choose books that the child prefers.
There numerous children\’s books and selecting the best among them is a formidable task. It is better to take the children to book fairs or bookshops and let them make a choice for themselves. However, if the children are of school-going age, they should be encouraged to visit the school library. Parents should talk to them about the purpose of a library and encourage children to get books issued from their school library.