What age did your child independently pick up a book and sit to read?

[gogettum]

My dd is just turned 7...she won't read unless it's bedtime and I'm with her. All (well not all but most) of her friends and cousins etc will all sit and read for entertainment and it's freaking me out that she won't do it. We gave books around the house, there's a great selection (although there could be more I suppose!) PLEASE tell me she's not the only one!? Or is this some normal step/milestone that she is just not "doing"?!!

Have you ever encouraged her to read during the day? Read to her as a baby during the day? She might just not get that it is something she can do. Also I’m assuming she can read. Ask her what she’s read at school, maybe you don’t have things that interest her or she doesn’t know that your books are similar

Mine never have (aged nearly 8 and 17). I don’t actually think that many children do anymore. They do read a lot online though - iPads, screens etc. Both of mine loved / love (the nearly 8 year old!) bedtime stories and enjoyed those but would never read themselves just for pleasure.

Dh and I were complete book worms as kids so we find it sad and odd but I think it’s very much a sign of the times.

Were all keen readers in our house, does she see the grownups read books?

DC1, about 4, as soon as he could read.
DC2, still waiting at 8
They are all different, I'm just having to accept that DC2 just doesn't enjoy it in the way that DC1 does

Dc1 4.
Dc2 8/9ish.

Both were read to from an early age and enjoyed books, but dc1 read alot earlier than dc2, and preferred to read himself whereas dc2 preferred to be read to even once he could read independently.

dc1 used to look at picture books independently from about 2 I don't recall with dc2.

About 3.5? DS1 has just turned 4 now, he can't actually read anything and isn't very interested in learning but he'll pick up books and either recite his favourite stories from memory or look at the pictures and chat to himself about them (he has lots of non-fiction stuff about trains and cars)

FWIW DH is a perfectly normal grown man with a degree and a job and in the 10+ years I've known him he's read about 3 novels for fun (though he reads the news and stuff on wikipedia about trains/planes/tv shows he likes)

DD is 6 and while she would randomly do it for a few minutes now and then it wasn't until her 6th birthday when we bought her a set of comic books / graphic novels, whatever you want to call them, that she would sit and read for a long time. I hope this leads her on to more wordy chapter type books. I've got my Harry Potter set on the shelves waiting for her.
But letting her explore on her own terms.

Have you tried coming type books?
DD has a set of 4 Teen Titans books. She's halfway thru the first one and watches the show alot.
Maybe find books based on TV progs she likes?
Maybe you both haven't found the right style of book for her yet?

I am an avid reader and have been since I was little. I have three DC age 10 to 14, all bright and doing well at school, but none of them will pick up a book for pleasure during the day

The way I encourage them to read is to take away any screens before bedtime and say they can leave the light on and read for a bit (I also still read aloud to the youngest). They will read when there's nothing else to do!

Not possible now but in usual times make a trip to the library part of your routine. Get lots of book - let her help choose. Get some really easy to read, some topic related, some harder for you to read. Suggest to her at home she takes a look. Leave the bag in her bedroom. Sometimes start a very easy book at bedtime....but stop at a good bit. Then she might want to read herself.

My daughter at that age much preferred a comic. A Beano was her favourite. She was very visual so read picture books much longer than my son. I didn't push it as at least she was reading.

As a pp said make sure she sees you reading for pleasure too.

*comic not coming

Never. I'm a big reader and it breaks my heart that my 3 are completely indifferent. I would have to bribe or force them to read

He obviously can't read at all but my son has picked up books since 12 months, flicking through the pictures. Now at 19 months he climbs in his little chair with a book, looks through it pointing/naming the pictures he knows or knocking on the three little pigs book like I do! Goodness knows if this will continue once he learns to read!

DD was 8. She isn't a big reader. I suspect that she is slightly dyslexic.

Dd has anywhere from 30-60 mins of reading time every night. She joins in the bedtime story with her brother before that. It means she is in bed the same time as him, but has up to an hour extra awake time. She uses this for reading. She also is allowed to read when she wakes in the morning if it's not the get up time yet.

Since lock down, we've also introduced reading time of around 30 mins a day. She doesn't particularly enjoy this but she does it.

Do you mean read it properly from cover to cover or flick through for a while talking about the pictures, picking out a few sentences etc.

Both of my DCs would look at books and use them as entertainment as toddlers. To actually read them properly through own free will DD was probably about 6 and DS (11) never has even though he picked up the skill of reading more quickly. He will still only read if we tell him to. DD at 15 is still a real book worm.

6 for both of mine, they both started with magazines and actually read them instead of just doing the puzzles etc. Would it be worth starting with those?

I think around 6/7. Have you tried the Ramona books? I loved them at her age, so did my kids.

A child that grows up in a house of readers will almost certainly read. Try a daily family reading slot.

DD is 6 and she will read, she also likes audiobooks. Although she can read, she loses track of characters in something big like Harry Potter. She likes the idea of reading chapter books like Worst Witch or the Rainbow Fairy books but loses interest halfway through, I think she reads too slowly to keep momemtum. The only chapter book she has finished is Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

We've got Harry Potter, Worst Witch and Magic Faraway Tree on CD for her to listen to and she enjoys doing that.

Ds is a proper bookworm and was reading full Harry potter at 6.
Dd is 8 and yet to read a full book. She's much more focused though and I would be on her being the more successful in.school.

Only when I've spent a lot of time reading to them at odd times and places during the day. If I stop, they stop.

Mine have always loved books and read quite a lot but it is mostly at night. Occasionally, and especially at the moment, I'm carving out 30-45 min times in the day and we all read (they are 8 and 10). DS often prefers fact books, Guinness world records or annuals but he likes the usual stuff like David Walliams too. He skips about though, finds the funny bits and looks ahead. We always do a chapter or so at bedtime together, and then it's up to them how long they read. I don't impose a lights out apart from occasionally for dd who has been known to still be reading at 11pm. I teach teenagers though and many many of them, of both sexes tell me they never read, hate it. Yet want to do humanities subjects at A level. 😒

DS1 loved books from being tiny. I remember being in the next room with DS2 as a newborn, so DS1 would have been just 2. I was very impressed to hear DS1 counting out loud and then disappointed to realise he was reading the numbers from a book and didn't know them off by heart

He loved books right through his childhood, books were always a favourite present for him, he was genuinely thrilled to receive a book. Until it started to matter for GCSE, when he had quite a break from reading for pleasure. He's gone back to it now, during lockdown at 19yo but he's reading all his old children's/teenage spy stories.

DS2 was a far more reluctant reader, didn't even really enjoy being read to, which was always a treat for DS1. They did equally well but differently school but DS2 did better on the science side. Now DS2 is 16 earning good money of his own at an apprenticeship, he's spending a lot if it on books and reading far more "intelectual" material than DS1.

Mine is almost 7 and doesn't. He only reads his school books when I make him. He enjoys listening to stories though but he's just not into reading himself. I'm a huge reader myself and have over 300 books in my house, so it's not that he doesn't see me reading for fun either! I think some people just aren't into books.

Mine always have - ever since they could physically hold a book I think. I remember when dd started nursery at 11 months on about her second week she discovered the book corner and spent an entire afternoon in there working her way through the books. They thought it was hilarious!

Ds was even more obsessed. As a toddler used to have a (different each day) book that he would take to nursery as his comfort thing. (Rather than a cuddly toy- of which he had many and he had no interest in.) I’d hand him over to the carer and they would immediately start reading from the book and that would stop him crying when I left.

When my mum used to babysit for the kids I would generally find him in bed with a book the next morning.

I think it is something that they like or don’t - like carrots.

DC1 - 7y
DC2 - 5y

Now they are 9 and 7 years and are avid readers - they read in bed every night and yesterday didn't surface until 10.30am as they were engrossed in their books.