Reading! Don’t tell me it’s not important!

[Bloodyhell15]

Like the title says. Don’t tell me reading for pleasure as kids isn’t important, all the data says it is! How do I get my youngest (7) to read?! We model lots of reading, her brother reads, she loves stories at bedtime, has a reading age of 10.5. But doesn’t seem remotely interested!

Looking for all your nifty tips, and also stories of your kids who suddenly got into reading later, thanks!

I’m not sure - remove screen time?

What does your daughter enjoy OP? Get her books about that, either fiction or non fiction.

My 7 year old prefers non fiction to fiction. He's interested in science and space, so has books about inventions, the solar system, planet earth, etc. He also likes puzzle books and wordsearches.

ETA: my nephew was adamant he didn't like reading, but he loves Pokémon. My sister bought him Pokémon books and he loves them!

DS2 really struggles to sit and read a book (he's AuDHD), but will happily sit and listen audiobooks for hours. They still get most of the benefits of physically reading the book, and it's been shown to be a good way to get reluctant readers to read in the longer-term. For DS, it means he can colour/doodle/knit while he listens so he can actually focus on the words.

Get her interested in a series of books.
Read to an exciting point, then say you are going downstairs but she can carry on for 30mins if she wants to?

We said DDs couldn't watch Harry Potter films until they had read the books...

My daughter is dyslexic and it can be a struggle but audio books have saved the day. We try and buy the unabridged versions so she can follow them with a paper copy, but just audio books she will listen for hours and hours.

Mine is a fluent but at times reluctant reader. She got in to reading a series of books for herself that had already been read to her, and really enjoys graphic novels.

Don't force, if they prefer fact to fiction books go with it. A trip to a decent bookshop, with a coffee shop, look at the books etc. libraries are brilliant let her spend time looking at the books.

The National Literacy Trust has research on audiobooks that might be worth looking up. Listening to them has a lot of the benefits of reading & the NLT say that they can also spark an interest in reading books.

Graphic novels have become v popular at that age & might be worth a try - I do wonder if that’s because it’s quite a jump from reading books to much longer chapter books & novels (both in reading stamina & because there is more text on the page) & graphic novels bridge that gap.

Mine is severely dyslexic and ADHD - at 17, it's still really hard work for her to read a book.

But she loves films - and occasionally I can then interest her in reading the book of the film. Especially if I've read it first and can assure her that it's basically the film +++

Also books that are a bit more interactive - with things to do alongside the text - can really help.

Otherwise audio books.

I was a complete bookworm as a child and even now I probably read 2-3 books a week, so it's one of my greatest sorrows that my child can't enjoy reading.

But in terms of education, vocabulary and cultural capital, there are other ways to get this through film, documentaries, theatre etc.

Stick the subtitles on the tv, reading by accident.

Buy a special “reading chair” for their room. Something lovely and cosy and appealing. This really worked for our eldest when they were about the same age.

i dont believe in religion but when i was younger i had those a4 red cover and yellow cover religion books with the bible pictures in them and slowly learned the words.

then in my teens i was printing and reading movie scripts and alternative version movie scripts as it gave more details about the films and characters,

the it was reading the x factor paranormal magazines and then carried on my intrest from there,

personally id try the harry potter books

Two of mine started reading for pleasure with the “Dogman” comic books. I kept my boy interested by getting comics in the shops. He didn’t read a proper book until he was 10. But he got there in the end.

No screens help a lot. Books at bedtime, slightly early.
maybe non fiction books or comics work better sometimes.
books pitched at their age or younger rather than reading level. Make it low effort.

My aunt very kindly gives my kids, instead of pocket money, book tokens and I’ve found when they go to the shop and choose their own books they love them more - a bit like food, involve them in the preparation they’re more interested in it and less fussy x

In Feb/March this year I had a 7yo reluctant reader. We stumbled upon Emer Stamp's 'Diary of Pig' series of books and something clicked for him. He moved on to the same author's 3 part series, 'Pests' and things very quickly turned around. He has just finished his second reading of all 7 Harry Potter books, and reads for hours each day! He asked for a Kindle for Xmas and I couldn't be more surprised!!

I read loads as a child, mainly as there was nothing else to do!
If we have had all the screens that are available now I doubt we would have.
So basically, bore her into it?!

And for content rather than reading ability- audiobooks.

I think there can be a tendency to try and push kids onto chapter books a bit too early and I’m not sure it does any good. My eldest was as advanced reader in infants and then had a wobble in year 3/4 where she really didn’t enjoy it that much and it felt like a battle to get her reading. In year 5 she is currently a prolific reader and something has switched. She enjoys sitting down with a book whereas it had felt like hard work before then. I think I was too influenced by what some of her friends were saying they were reading and pushed her too quickly onto longer books.

My 6 year old is currently in a bit of a tricky phase as well. I had been trying to get her onto things like the rainbow fairies and slightly more complicated books but she’s really resisting as she wants picture books. I’m not pushing the chapter books and just letting
her read the picture books as I don’t want to have the same issues I had with my eldest. She really likes being able to read the Julia Donaldson books she remembers from when she was a toddler.

We linked treats to reading in a way that was not obvious but worked a treat. Read a Harry Potter and we have a super exciting movie night, finish the series and we went to the Studios tour! When we went to London we went and looked at the settings of books. We read then watched Matilda etc etc. I encouraged my kids to "play" Lemony Snickett and Scullduggery Pleasant by buying linked items and joining in. Encourage them to write short stories and reward with cake whilst we round robin listen. Never overtly "read that and we'll buy you the linked video game" more, "Is that book good, I enjoyed it", "I heard there is a great film of this book, we could get that to watch when you finish, I want to watch it too, such a great story!" etc. It is about generating excitement and happy feelings around books, not overt bribing which only works very short term. Both mine read a lot as adults and asked for books for Xmas. (Ooohhhh another one - ask for a book at xmas and get 6-10, ask for a game and get well, that one game 😂)

Comics, non fiction, instruction booklets. Do you cook, then she could read out the recipe, or when shopping, read the ingredients in a product. Anything that interests her really, including a calendar where you could daily read out a fact, or wall charts with random facts. Daft poems go down well too.

This!
DD1 not really a great reader as a child but as a young adult reads a wide variety of books and has joined a reading group. Sometimes it just happens later.
DD2 studying Eng Lit for A level and more of a natural reader. However also loves an audiobook as well as an ordinary book.
DH and I read more than the average person I suspect, there's a lot of paperbacks in this house across a wide range of genres.

She may be 7 with an older reading age, but she’s still 7. The 10+ age books are probably too old for her. Why don’t you just read to her at bedtime? Sit beside her so she can follow the words. Get her comic books, silly poems or song lyrics to read. But honestly, I wouldn’t push it too much, you’ll put her off!

I am mid 30s; have 2 degrees, a masters, 2 businesses, sometimes it feels like I have read the internet in its entirety, never got an election prediction wrong. Yet can count the number of fiction books I have read on one hand.

Reading matters. But you say she can read. A love of reading as you describe is not a big deal.

Another vote for audio books, which provide a lot of the benefits of reading. One child dyslexic and struggles with reading, but has excellent vocab and comprehension skills due to audiobooks and us reading together.

we’ve also recently purchased kindles and that seems to have ignited interest due to ability to choose their own content, novelty of the device and ability to adjust font to something more visually friendly. We’ll see if interest is sustained, but have been pleasantly surprised so far.