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Gomathy Narayanan

3 Powerful Steps to Make your Child Love Reading

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….in less than 7 days….

We oft worry and wonder why our child hates to read. The hatred for reading creeps into and gets in way of their academic performance and we enter into the downward spiral of blaming our kid for not concentrating, blaming the school and teacher for not paying enough attention to your child, and blaming ourselves for being a failure as a parent.
 
You will be surprised at how a Reading habit inculcated at a very young age can serve as a solution to all these academic challenges a child would face otherwise. And Reading aloud sets a sound base for expanding a child’s vocabulary, listening comprehension, and eventually the reading comprehension once they enter school.
 
Sharing stories, talking, and singing every day helps your child’s development in many ways.
 
Reading and sharing stories can:

  • help your child get to know sounds, words, and language, and develop early literacy skills

  • spark your child’s imagination and stimulate curiosity

  • help develop your child’s brain, ability to focus, concentration, social skills, and communication skills

  • increase their listening cognition and improve their vocabulary

  • help your child understand new or frightening events and the strong emotions that come with them

  • set their up for academic success

So how can you start reading to your child so that the child is interested? Here are simple yet effective 3 steps for beginners.

Step 1: Add spice to your reading time with a Reading Corner

Reading Corner is a comfortable space for your child to sit and read. This space can be as simple as a corner of your couch or sofa in a living room, or a rocking chair in your bedroom. The more consistent you are with reinforcing this reading corner for reading, the more your child will relate this space with reading.

 
A few other examples:

  • Build a small Fort with your favorite saree

  • Recycle your baby’s comfort blankets and swaddle fabrics to the tent

  • Find a corner of the coach and throw pillows and his favorite plush toys

Step 2: Allow your child to pick his favorite book

As you will agree, reading should be a pleasurable experience and not a chore for the child. Hence, to attract your child towards this habit, use his favorite book as a hook. The book should be something the child goes to for the pictures or the characters in them. If your child does not have a favorite book yet, do not worry, pick a book with his favorite character or thing and with plenty of attractive illustrations in it.

A few examples:

  • Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs for a dinosaur lover

  • A Very Hungry Caterpillar for a visual learner loving colors

  • Any fairytale or princess book for girls would generally work

Step 3: Build reading into your daily routine

Set aside a dedicated time for reading with your child. This can be a few chunks of 5 minutes window for babies and toddlers and a longer duration for pre-schoolers and increase it as their attention span increases. For a kindergartner and primary schooler who can understand the concept of time, set a fixed hour for reading, and share the schedule with the child.
 

A few suggestions:

  • For babies include reading as part of their routine along with their naptime, bathtime, and tummy time when they are active and happy

  • Bedtime story is a soothing way to put your child to sleep

I hope you found some useful pointers to being your reading journey with your child and making it interesting and a journey that is long-lasting.

I would love to hear from you how is your journey with your child, and if you face any challenges that you want to address, feel free to contact me and schedule a One-on-One time with me to discuss at length.

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