Do You Have A Reluctant Reader?
What you can do to get your child reading
Ruth watched her child put his head down on the table. “I’m done,” replied her child. “You only read 10 minutes,” Ruth reminded her. “My stomach hurts.” Ruth knew the real reason for the complaint. Alex struggled with reading.
Do you have a reluctant reader in your home? Are you struggling to get your child to read one page? There is no one simple solution in helping your child increase her reading fluency but with consistency, hard work, and a positive attitude as a parent, you can make your child’s journey easier.
Many parents worry when their child’s reading is progressing slower than expected. If your child feels that he is not meeting your expectations, it will only add undue pressure on him. Communicate with your child that you see it’s hard for him to read and ask him questions how he feels. Encourage the effort and tell him you recognize the work he is doing. Stories about when you were young and how you struggled with a certain subject or a certain skill can be comforting. Share with him how it made you feel when you learned something new—and how eventually it got easier.
Read Aloud
Studies have continually shown children who have been read to, are better readers and have a higher interest in reading. Set special times to snuggle on the couch and read to your child. Read mysteries, action-packed stories, and classics. Read poems, funny stories, and award-winning books.
Vision and Hearing Appointment
Set up a visit to an optometrist to rule out any possible medical reason for your child not reading well. The simple eye test at a pediatrician’s office evaluates distance vision rather than close-up or reading vision. Your child’s hearing should be checked also because reading involves the ability to hear. If a child has a hearing loss, she won’t be able to distinguish between words such as hat or hot, cap or cup.
Flash Cards
Sometimes a child has trouble with specific phonetic combinations which are letter patterns and sounds they make. “Parents should listen very carefully as the child reads aloud to determine which of this combinations cause most difficulty, “says Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D. “Prepare flash cards for those sounds and other cards for the words in which those sounds appear.” Make up games such as throwing the cards on the floor and saying the sound and have your child hop to that sound. After 10 minutes, switch positions with your child, and you, as the mom, hop to the appropriate card. This provides an opportunity for your child to think about the sound and say it. Jump on the wrong card and see if your child catches your wrong choice.
Reading is a learned skill. Think back on when you had to learn a new skill. Did you learn instantly or in bits and pieces? Were you discouraged when you lost a document your just wrote? Was it frustrating when a new recipe failed? Your child is learning a new skill, and her attitude may be poor initially. However, as your knowledge and competency improved learning a new skill, your enjoyment of the skill improved. “When improvement started, your discouragement lessened,” says Caroselli, and it will for your child.
Book Light
Invest in a book light as a gift for your child and allow him to stay up for an half an hour later only if he reads. You can point out to his younger siblings that when they are old enough, they will get their own book light. However, until then “only big kids get to stay up and read.”
Lower Reading Level
Offer lower reading level books to your child. The more the child reads regardless of the reading level the more the child will feel successful. Investigate graphic novels which are similar to comic books but have a more complex storyline. Currently, there are many graphic novels available on the market. Visit your local library or local bookstore for more information.
Buy a book
If it is in the budget, splurge and buy a book of interest for your child. It signifies to her that reading is important. A magazine subscription to the child’s interest is another great reward for her. There are many educational child magazines to pick from, however, maybe a silly, fun magazine would be a great motivator for your reader to curl up on the couch and peruse the pages.
Library
A young child can have their own library card when he is able to print his name. Make a big deal that he now can check out books. Learn how to put books at the library on hold through your home computer and show our child. He may not be able put books on hold yet, but he sees it is an important process.
You can pick a subject of interest of your child’s and check out the children’s magazines. The articles are shorter in length and have attractive pictures. Audio books are also a rich source of information. Make it a Sunday ritual of listening to books on DVD together on Sunday afternoons.
A child needs to see that what the parent says is what the parent does. Caroselli reminds, “The child should see constant examples of parents reading and enjoying the process.”