Getting Children Reading

FAMILY · GLOBAL

Getting Children Reading

Matching books to a reader, reluctant readers, reading aloud and choice

Children who read for pleasure do better across every school subject, and the strongest predictor of whether they do is whether they get to choose what they read.

Let them choose

Comics, graphic novels, joke books, non-fiction about one narrow obsession, and books below their reading level all count. A child reading something easy and enjoyable is reading; a child struggling through something improving is not.

Research on reading for pleasure is consistent that choice and enjoyment matter more than the literary merit of the text.

Matching the level

The five-finger test is a useful rough guide — open a page and hold up a finger for each word the child cannot read. More than five on a page and the book is likely to frustrate rather than stretch.

Reading level and interest level diverge as children get older, and books written for older readers at an accessible reading level exist for exactly that reason.

Reluctant readers

Short chapters, illustrations, humour, dyslexia-friendly typefaces and cream paper all reduce the barrier. Audiobooks count too, and comprehension from listening is genuinely comparable.

Look for an underlying cause if reading is a consistent struggle. Undiagnosed vision problems and dyslexia are common and both are addressable.

Keep reading aloud

Long after children can read independently. Reading aloud lets them meet vocabulary and stories beyond their decoding ability, and it is the part most families stop too early.

Make books visible

Books left around a house get picked up. A library card costs nothing, gives access to far more than you can buy, and lets a child abandon a book without guilt.

Books as gifts

Ask what the child is into rather than what age they are, since a six-year-old obsessed with sharks will read far above their level on that one subject.

Include a gift receipt or a token, since duplicates are common with popular titles.

Screens and reading

The evidence is mostly about displacement rather than harm — screens crowd out reading time rather than damaging the ability to read. Protecting a reading slot, usually before bed, is the practical response.

E-readers count as reading and remove the intimidation of a thick book, which some children find helpful.

Reading at school age

Daily reading practice is most effective in short sessions, and ten minutes done willingly beats thirty done under protest. Take turns reading a page each to share the load.

Talk about what happened rather than testing comprehension, since conversation builds understanding and quizzing builds resistance.

Do not make it a battle

Reading tied to reward charts and homework becomes work. Ten minutes of something they chose does more than thirty of something they did not.

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