Child who dislikes reading

[Lightheart]

Child currently year 1 doesn't really have an interest in reading. Is on orange book band so on target and is quite a good reader but he just is not interested to read to himself. He loves being read to and has good understanding when he has to read his school book etc but does often kick up a fuss as he finds it boring. I'd like to help him be able to find abit more enjoyment in it especially as he's quite able.

Any suggestions?

Hi
My daughter is the same. She’s in year 2. She likes reading the plays in the Oxford reading series and will read one sentence each of a normal reader on a good day. I try to get her funny books because she likes laughing with me and is now just starting to read them on her own. Good luck!

We’ve had success with comic books for my 6yr old.

I have a son in Year 3. In my experience the books sent home from school were dire, so I supplied him with things I thought he would actually enjoy and told his teacher we were doing that, and now he’s a voracious reader.

Don't stress! My most reluctant reader in Y1 is the child who reads the most now she's in Y6. Let him see you read, read to him every day and keep practicing reading every day. DD1 was concerned we'd stop reading to her when she could read herself (she was an early reader) so we told her we'd read to her as long as she wanted. She's Y7 and still likes being read to (DH is reading The Hobbit to her at the moment, his voices are a big attraction!). Also, have lots of different kinds of books in the house. We have chapter books and graphic novels and comics and magazines and newspapers and non-fiction.

My son hated reading until he was in year 4. He is dyslexic so doesn't find reading easy.

I bought him a couple of joke books as he liked telling jokes and encouraged him to find jokes that he liked.

He developed an interest in football magazines, so we bought him lots of those. His teacher tried him on comic style books in class and he enjoyed them and so I buy him those types of books.

I guess it's about trying to find books that he will enjoy. Personally, I don't mind what my children read, as long as they read.

.... my son liked the DogMan books, which are comic style. My nephew who is in Year 3 hates reading but we gave him a DogMan book and he enjoyed it.

Mine get a bit more reading in by being allowed to stay up later as long as they were reading.

Dd (8.5) now reads in bed for around an hour every evening. Ds (5.5) will sometimes look at books for 15mins after bedtime but he isn't really reading many words yet. But as soon as he is able, he can have 15-30 mins later to bed as long as he uses it for reading.

I'm an avid reader myself and was very disappointed when DD told me age 7 that she hated reading. She's now 12 and really enjoys it. It seems like a chore to them, until they're good enough to get on to books that are actually fun to read. My advice is to keep reading to him. If he enjoys that then the rest will come.

Audio book to listen to alongside looking at hard copy? Then he can listen and follow along turning the pages for himself. Slightly more independent than being read to sitting with an adult, it may work as a stepping stone.

My DD didn't start properly reading till she was 10 and now we have a routine every night where she reads before bed.

She hated the school books so it wasn't until she picked her own that she started enjoying reading. I used to take her into Waterstones when I was choosing a book and just let her look round with no pressure to buy anything until one day she wanted to.

Are you members of your local library? If not, then join when they reopen, and let him browse the children's section for something he might find interesting.

What does he like generally? Animals?

My 9 year old does not enjoy reading. She does 20 mins a day but it is considered school work rather than enjoyment.

She will read Guinness book of records or facts about her favourite football team more willingly than a story.

Start getting the Beano every week, get some books called 101 facts about snot (or similar) and have a copy of the Argos catalogue in the house. Perfect reading material for that age.

I doubt school reading books are any more interesting now than they were when mine was that age, or indeed when I was. Dp, dc and I are all avid readers and were all bookworms as children. None of us enjoyed the various reading schemes from school. Let him read whatever he likes.

For the school books, read a page each. For the rest, just let let him choose - comics are a great idea, audio books are good for vocabulary.

13 Storey Treehouse. This changed DD from a very competent but unenthusiastic reader to a complete bookworm. 🙂

Down load Oxford Owl and he can chose to listen to books

Buy some audio books in the background in the day - he won’t know that’s what he’s listening to

School reading books are often extremely boring IME - very annoying when we are meant to be engaging young minds 🙄

Mine is in year one too and would never choose to read. But I've realised a long time ago she's not that sort of child. Apart from watching Tele she likes imaginary play or crafts or painting or going out and doing stuff.
I don't feel like I can make her enjoy reading when this is not the activity she'd ever be drawn to.

Please don't worry. He's doing really well on orange book band. cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/07/19/13/52/18/160/OxfordLevelsAndBookBands.png I'd say look for some ORT non fiction, such as the Infact or Fireflies Series. Read to him every day and choose books together for you to read to him. Give him a book about something he loves (football/ dinosaurs whatever) and ask him to chat to you about the pictures, no pressure to read it. A love of books, stories and curiosity are as important to nurture as reading and he will catch up. My DS did as soon as he escaped the tyranny of Biff, Chip and Kipper.

Also, you can’t make a child love reading. Maybe they never will. The lack of wide vocabulary can become an issue when they get older, but they can get that from discussion, films, T.V and audio books and being read to.

I think some children just like reading anything and others are more particular and will only read certain types of book

Dd1, now 18, has always been an avid reader of any kind of book, dd2 (15) not at all Dd3 (9) is a bit in between depending on the books, she likes funny books like the David Walliams type

When DS was a baby I imagined he would be like me - glued to a book every minute of the day. He is 15 now and hardly reads at all. He never has. Some books he enjoys but he is not a reader. He is like his Dad. DS is trilingual, near the top of his class at school in his second language (after 4 years of living here), very intelligent and articulate. Highly educated DH has recently retired after a career in jobs that require an intellect I could never compete with.

Encourage reading, but understand its not the be all and end all. Don't worry about it as I did. If they aren't a reader it is important that you talk to them and introduce grammar and vocabulary that way.

My advice would be to keep reading to them.

DC wasn't that interested in reading through YR and Y1. In Y2 they 'discovered' Horrid Henry and worked through all of them - I can't say that it would have been my first choice but...

Moved on to other books and has read pretty much every day since then.

It's hard finding new books to keep them going, they go through periods of not reading much but I do hope that they continue to find the pleasure in getting 'lost' in a book.

Ds was a very reluctant reader in Y1. I think he was still on red. He did easy phonics but was lazy. We really had to put the effort in at home. We tried lots of books but Captain Underpants was the first thing he got excited about (Dogman too) and then we couldn't stop him. He's in Y4 now and has demolished Harry Potter multiple times and his teacher has him as a very able reader.