Читать книгу Help Your Child Love Reading - Alison David - Страница 9

As you read through the book, you’ll find lots of ideas and tips about how to read to and with your child, how to make your home a ‘reading home’ and so on. I just want to talk briefly about the fundamentals that underpin the whole ‘project’ of turning your child into a lifelong reader.

Make a commitment

First you need to make a commitment to get involved and stay involved, probably for longer than you think. It is not a quick fix. You need to share with them and encourage them well into their teens, creating a rich environment for reading for pleasure to flourish.

Avoid putting pressure on your child

The point about reading for pleasure is that it is for pleasure. Don’t stress about the level your child is reading at or about the subject matter or format – the point is that they are reading. I’ve met many families where school reading becomes the priority. In the primary school years parents will talk about reading homework and focus on their child moving up the reading levels. I have also seen plenty of families where a bedtime story happens much less – or even not at all – because it is replaced by the child doing their school reading. Of course it’s vital that our children learn to read. The world is competitive and they need to read to do well at school. But if we are not careful we can give them a message that reading is something they have to do, that it’s a chore, that it’s just homework. In their minds it can become no fun. If children feel pressured we can easily turn them off reading.

EXPERT VIEW

One of the best ways to take the pressure off is for them to see you enjoying reading and for you to talk to them about an interesting book you’ve read recently. Children learn by copying and you are your child’s version of ‘normal’, so if you read for pleasure, they will expect to grow up reading too.

Dr Amanda Gummer

Don’t make assumptions

There is a prevailing assumption that once children can read, they will read. Not so! Quite simply, many children don’t want to read because they don’t associate it with pleasure. Getting your child to read for pleasure is much more than getting them to the point where they can read independently, and your role in this is really, really important. Let the school take the lead on teaching reading and support the school in this by listening to your child read their school books. However, your focus should be primarily on instilling the love of reading. If the focus is on the pleasure of it and children grow to love it, the rest will follow. Together with the school you will create a reader.

Children who have parental support at home and read for pleasure have a much wider range of vocabulary, and their verbal reasoning is much more advanced than those who do not. Their education journey is going to be much more rapid than those children who don’t read for pleasure.

East Midlands primary school teacher

Reclaim quiet time

Our children’s lives are conspicuously lacking in quiet time and this is, of course, when reading happens. Lack of quiet time is probably one of the biggest challenges to children’s reading for pleasure today, so carve out time when all screens are off (including your own!) and when interruptions are kept to a minimum.

Understand today’s child

Parents often say to me ‘I don’t understand why my child doesn’t read because I used to love it so much.’ I can say with certainty if you contrast your own childhood with your child’s you can see why: after-school clubs, homework, 24/7 on-tap entertainment from consoles, phones, laptops and television – all these things compete successfully with reading.

Think about when you were a child. You will have some memories of technology, but how much will depend on how old you are! In the 1970s your family might have played the tennis game Pong through the TV, in the 1980s you may have played Space Invaders in arcades or had an Amstrad computer. Gradually through the 1990s and beyond, more families got PCs and computer gaming gained in popularity.

But whatever you had access to, I can guarantee there is vastly more of it in your child’s world now. You would have had plenty of time where there was not much to do, when you were at a loose end and so would have picked up a book. I think many adults who love to read quite possibly came to it in the first place for want of anything else to do. This isn’t as odd as it might sound: reading is nothing more than a habit, and like all habits it needs time to establish itself.

EXPERT VIEW

Today, there is a reduction in reading print texts (books, magazines, etc.) and a significant increase in screen time. An argument can be made that children are reading lots on screen – instructions, social media messages – but it is the reading of extended texts that is diminishing, in other words books that take ideas and develop them over a sequence of episodes or sections. Children have to learn that not all reading can be done in bite-size pieces but that there is pleasure, purpose and deeper fulfilment in longer reading experiences.

David Reedy

Of course, time is the one thing our children don’t have a lot of and screen time is the handiest and quickest fix when boredom strikes. Our children have so little time when their minds can be still, the likelihood of them picking up a book for ten minutes or an hour is so much less than when we were growing up. Reading needs quiet time to take root and grow. Since lives today are very short of this we need to create that time for our children. So, don’t book activities after school every day, have a day or two when reading is the thing to look forward to.

Help them with reading choices

Ensuring your child has plenty of reading choices is an important part of helping your child love reading. If there are new and exciting things to read, this should be a great encouragement. The trouble is, although there is a huge variety of books to choose from, many children don’t get to see them. Many retailers only stock the big names and high-profile newly published books. There is a vast choice behind all this, available in so many different places.

Have a look in libraries and charity and secondhand shops; talk to teachers, friends, your child’s friends and their parents; or go online to look at reading platforms there. The world really is awash with good and interesting things to read – booksellers do not have a monopoly on this. And remember, all reading is good reading, so include comics, magazines, graphic novels, even newspapers as they get older.

As your child develops interests you can pick up on these as ways into reading. Everything they enjoy can be used to inspire them to read, from interests and hobbies to having favourite authors and choosing more by the same person, to getting into a series and working through it, to reading books that mirror experiences like the first time on a plane or at the dentist. Once you start thinking about all the things your child experiences and is involved in, you will find inspiration for new reading material.

Think about what interests your child and what he or she is good at. Whatever it is, you will be sure to find something appealing to read that reflects their enthusiasms. This should motivate them and inspire them to read. Of course interests come and go, but there is always something to reflect their current fascination or obsession. Here are some suggestions of different types of reading material for a range of ages. This list is really the tip of the iceberg; there is masses of choice out there, both fiction and information books, and something interesting for even the most picky child to read. I do hope it gives you some ideas.

• If your child loves to draw, do jigsaw puzzles or read maps, then they might enjoy books with maps, lots of illustrations and interactivity. At picture book age The Jolly Postman might fit the bill; at older ages the Tintin series or Shaun Tan books such as The Arrival. Try the Big Picture Press’ Maps book.

• If your child loves being active, playing sport, dancing, or doing things with their hands, try books about children that are like them. Perhaps the Football Academy series, or a classic such as Ballet Shoes. For non-fiction consider The Football Book or Stitch-by-Stitch.

• If they are obsessed with a character on TV, look out for books and magazines about them.

• If your child loves music and rhythm, read them nursery rhyme books when they are young, and poems as they get older. Try the Jump up and Join in books by Carrie and David Grant. Rhyming picture books are fantastic, for example Cats Ahoy by Peter Bently, anything by Julia Donaldson, The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway. For older children, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot is great fun.

• If they love interacting with people, then books about families and friendship might click: My Big Shouting Day! by Rebecca Patterson, Dave and the Tooth Fairy by Verna Allette Wilkins, Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent by Lauren Child, Dogger by Shirley Hughes, The Most Impossible Parents by Brian Patten, Grandpa Chatterji by Jamila Gavin or Coming to England by Floella Benjamin. For teens, try books such as The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden or The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks.

• If your child loves words and enjoys playing with words and sounds, you could try Silly Verse for Kids by Spike Milligan, Noisy Poems by Jill Bennett, or Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes.

• If your child loves gaming, there are even books about that too – strategy books for older children, guide books and so on. Try the Minecraft books.

• If they are fascinated about how things work, plenty of factual books fit the bill. Try the Usborne See Inside series. Or Egmont’s In One End and Out the Other.

• If your child is logical and analytical, likes to experiment and solve puzzles, then at a young age they might like search and find books. When they get older consider puzzle books: try Logic Puzzles by Sarah Khan, and for teens perhaps mysteries such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, or Mummies: Mysteries of the Ancient World by Paul Harrison.

• If your child is fascinated by the natural world then factual nature books might click. For example Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? by Robert E. Wells, and for the older child My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Also try books about animals, such as Hammy the Wonder Hamster by Poppy Harris and Varjak Paw by S. F. Said.

• If they love a film or TV series, seek out the book it’s based on, for example The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson.

• If your child is technology mad, see if reading digitally is inspiring for them. Got a teen who loves their phone and texting? Try Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 by David Crystal.

For more suggestions see here.

EXPERT VIEW

Finding the right hook to engage a child in a book is difficult to plan as it may depend on the child’s mood at the time. However, you can validate their interests and personalities by introducing books that reflect their interests and that are accessible for them in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure. This will pay dividends and help with holistic development, not just literacy. Books with characters that a child can relate to can enhance inter- and intra-personal intelligence and those with problems to solve can develop logical thinking skills. Visually descriptive books, with maps and routes, can engage spatial intelligence skills, and traditional goody and baddy books can promote the development of morality.

Dr Amanda Gummer

Help Your Child Love Reading is a book born out of my passionate belief that establishing a love of reading for pleasure is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. I know my own experience as a mum and that of others I meet in the course of my work bear this out completely. If there is one thing that comes of writing this book, I’d like it to be for parents to realise their involvement really really matters. You absolutely can make a difference to your child’s enjoyment of reading and it will bring your family so much happiness. I wish you every success. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Alison David, May 2014