Do you have to make more effort to get boys interested in reading than girls?

[Acepuppets]

Hello, I had an email from the National Literacy Trust and it has an article about helping boys to get interested in reading. I was wondering if you have a girl and a boy did you approach reading differently with them? Dis your son start off interested in reading and the lose interest? I only have a son and am treating him as I would a girl in terms of his reading so I would appreciate a comparison. Thank you.

I don't know, sounds like a bit of a generalisation to me. I have 2 boys. DS1 loved being read to and looking at books from a very early age and once he learnt to read himself has always loved books of all kinds, fiction or non-fiction. He also reads adult car and football mags now (he is 11)

DS2 (8) didn't mind being read to, liked to have a bed time story but didn't come to me with books during the day like DS1 and wasn't much interested in reading himself for a very long time. Now if he finds a book (usually a story) he likes he will read of his own free will.

As far as I am aware, I treated them the same. I tried to encourage reading with both of them but one responded better than the other. Interestingly I reckon they are reaching the same levels of ability at exactly the same stage in their schooling although DS1 is a summer child and DS2 is autumn so I suppose in terms of age DS1 was a little ahead.

I have a friend with 2 girls, the same ages as my boys, who are also very similar. One keen to read and one not so keen so I don't think it is as simple as comparing approaches with boys and girls. Personality has something to do with it too and how interested the parents are in reading.

Hi Bigboobiebertha,
Thanks for your detailed comment. I agree and think it is also to do with demographics and that the girls in the same area who are interested in reading is proportionally less than in other areas.

I don't treat my son any differently than I would a daughter where his learning is concerned. He is only three so fingers crossed he will like reading.

I have 2 girls (both autumn birthdays) and 1 ds (summer birthday).

They're all learnt to read before age 3yo. Ds was in some ways the hardest as he had hearing and speech issues, so he could be reading to me and I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell whether he was getting the words right due to pronunciation. Dd2 was the easiest-she only had to see a word once and she knew it, and phonics she worked out herself by playing with words.

They've all loved being read to and reading themselves.

What I have noticed is the difference in what they like to read.

The girls are fiction all the way. When little it was fairies, princesses, butterflies etc. moving onto chapter books like famous five around reception age. Frim reception onwards they wanted to read it themselves most of the time not be read to.

Ds (in reception now) likes fact. If he's choosing a book to read he will go to the adult section on aircraft. A description of an aeroplane's capabilities is something he loves, or a description of a WWII battle. He also wanted chapter books to be read to from an earlier age. At present I'm reading War Horse to him (his choice) and he loves it. His reading ability is not upto reading it on his own, but I have my finger under the words, and he often reads it with me. The girls either read it themselves or listened.

Obviously I can't say how I would have treated a DD as I don't have one but I made no conscious decision to do things from a boy's POV. Maybe it was because DS1 liked all books, fiction and non-fiction (he still does). I didn't need to make a special effort to stimulate his interest. Maybe if I had had DS2 first who needed some coaxing it would have been different.

As a survey of 1 (never very convincing I know) I would back up DeWe's thoughts when I was learning to read - I never read non-fiction unless it was part of the reading scheme (still remember with shudders having to read an account of Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki raft across the Pacific - so boring). I would never have chosen a non-fiction book to read at home. That came with age (teens and onwards)..

The boys' infant school always maintained it didn't matter what they read so long as they did so I have never worried about it and let the boys chose maybe that is the key to getting anybody interested in reading - you don't have to do anything special but be guided by what they like.

I have a DD and a DS. They both learned to read at the same time (DS is a year younger) - we home ed so I was teaching DD and DS insisted on learning too so no extra encouragement required for him They both read the same sorts of books too - mostly Tintin. DS is happy to read a book with a female lead character though, he loves Winne the Witch. Maybe that will change as he gets older though.

I have a 14yo DS, 5yo DS and 3yo DD.

The eldest never ever read any fiction until he was roughly 12, although technically he was very able at reading. I got him interested via Captain Underpants and Skullduggery Pleasant. Recently he has read The Life of Pi and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (yes I am a smug mum)

5yo DS is currently learning to read and trawling through all the Biff and Chip books which he does seem to like.

DD is obviously a little young to learn how to read per se but she loves listening to stories and displays lots of pre-reading behaviour.

I wouldn't say I treat her any differently regarding reading.

IMHO I think if you encourage reading and sharing books and words from a young age, your child will be a reader. I do see a difference between boys and girls (in general). I'm making generalisations here! Girls are more likely to take themselves off alone to read, boys tend to like to read in groups or share books. I think non-fiction and comics etc are an important part of becoming a reader. If you can tap into what NF a boy likes, it's easy to find related fiction. Once a week, give them some money and let them buy reading material with it- a comic, book, NF, whatever they want. Some parents I meet are obsessed with their child only reading 'quality' books. If a child wants to read every capt underpants a million times, who cares! They're enjoying reading!