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Parents of children who hate reading

128 replies

Ineedaholidayyyy · 04/09/2024 17:17

My son has started Year 1 at school. We had a battle last year getting him to read regularly at home, it was very challenging. He would get frustrated when he couldn't sound out words, which lead to him not wanting to read at all. We had a breakthrough in the last term, but he was still a little behind at the end of the year. He's one of the younger ones in the year, so i wasn't bothered about this and was just pleased he was making progress finally.

Tonight, I've asked him to read 3 pages of his reading book, not a lot to expect surely?. He's gone into a massive strop and point blank refused to read anything, telling me its boring. I really don't want to go through this again for another year. My partner thinks I'm being a bit strict with it being his first week back, and that I should leave it till next week to push the reading, which is probably the right thing to do

So I'm interested in hearing from parents who have gone through this. What can we do to try and incentivise him and get him to enjoy reading more? We read a book to him before bed which he loves, he just really dislikes reading his school books. I don't want him to fall further behind this year. I know we can do things like stickers but I want to get to a point where he will read his book without a reward. I'd rather this than a punishment for not reading , eg no TV

OP posts:
takeittakeit · 10/09/2024 20:07

OP - I get your pain -there is not a thing I did not try, extra lessons , rewards, tears you name it I tried it. Dyslexia testing filters etc etc
Japanese comic books at around 10yrs were the first time I saw him voluntarily read a book but not often!
Blue filter glasses also helped( I was deeply cynical)

We have just done GCSES - predicted 3 and 4 in English Lang and Lit achieved an 8 and 9. I could have murdered him - response from him - i could read but I could not be bothered and I knew it drove you mad but you never yelled at me, so I tried even harder not to read infront of you!

Do not give up yet OP - most DCS get it!

KatieB55 · 10/09/2024 20:33

ThatsNotMyTeen · 04/09/2024 17:31

Just get him to read anything - instruction leaflets, things that come through the door, packets, anything. My eldest was an avid reader and although you know it’s always “important” it’s not really till I saw with my own eyes how he flew through higher English and stuff that it’s really important to establish the building blocks in the early years. My youngest hates reading no matter what we tried he’d never read for pleasure. So school suggested what I mentioned above - get him reading absolutely anything. He’s ended up not bad at all at English; albeit it’s never come as naturally to him as his brother.

I remember my son's teacher saying exactly this. She said read cereal boxes, The Beano, anything! He's an adult now that loves reading.

JacquelineD · 12/09/2024 21:42

Most children learn to read by sounding out and building up words, and this is how schools teach reading. However a small number of children don't find this easy or logical. My son couldn't do this, and had a harder time learning to read. He still can't 'build' words and he's 21! Maybe you read first and then he copies? Or play a game with the words on pieces of paper - can he find the words to put the sentence in order as you read it? Keep on with the reading experiences that he does enjoy x

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