Is reading really as beneficial as everyone says?

[Emilyisherenow]

Ds is 9, year 5.

He finds English difficult and has been a bit behind throughout primary school.

I'm reading chapter books with him for 10 minutes to half an hour. I'm trying to go for some of the classic, more well written books. We do a page each.

He doesn't really enjoy reading but he accepts that it's important and does seem to enjoy the time together.

Will it definitely be helping and making a difference?

Ronald Dahl and David Walliams are popular for that age too.

My boy was like this. No interest in reading (but did like the Wimpy Kid, strangely enough!).
The only reading he has ever done voluntarily is articles about sports, and I was unable to get him interested in reading anything much in secondary school either.
For GCSE I read all his set texts with him, because he hated reading so much but wanted to do well. It was actually really nice to be curled up reading with him like when he was little!
He worked really hard for his exams and did very well in the oral tests which bumped up his overall grades. He came out with really good results.
I doubt he'll ever be a reader tbh, but there we are. He is confident and a good communicator, and a happy and lovely 20 year old who has gone on to do a trade after completing his A levels.

Find what he loves. My nephew is similar to your DS but he absolutely loves tractors and will read tractor magazines.

Did all this with mine and read to them every night throughout childhood. They are excellent at reading but don't enjoy it. One is very academic and the other not so much, but neither have been readers.

Fair enough

A series similar to diary of a wimpy kid is "Middle School: the worst years of my life"
Similar in layout etc but could be something different.

Have you tried audio books? Listening to the story can be as good as reading it themselves. Again give him the choice and stay away from classics.

As a teacher we are supposed to read certain "classic" books including Stig of the Dump but it's full of vocabulary they do not come across now. It's takes a lot for a child of today to unpack what on earth they are reading!

Have you tried wimpy kid. My reluctant reader guy hooked and developed a bit of reading stamina that then let him move onto other stories

My DS is dyslexic and really hated reading, but would read lego fact books and I was still reading at night to him until he got to about year 8. The SENCO at his school couldn't believe how good his creative writing and how well he could read stories (reading single words out of context was really poor).
He also listened to audio book which were really good at helping him understand plot/characters etc and extend his vocabulary. Our local library allows users to borrow audio books from an app called Borrowbox for free, this was a god send as audible is pricy.

He finds English difficult and has been a bit behind throughout primary school.

He struggles getting things down on paper and extracting information from text.

Has he been assessed for dyslexia?

David Walliams books are surprisingly good.

Another vote for dyslexia screening.

I am a big reader, we've read to him every day, we went to the library every week, he could have any book/mag/comic he ever wanted, we've tried audio books etc etc but he just doesn't like reading.

And he is dyslexic but it was only picked up when I paid for a screening because I suspected in Y6 (school didn't agree). His vocab and coping skills were great; he has a lot of strengths, but dyslexic.

Reinforcing the previous fabulous suggestions of the Tree House books and choose your own adventure book.
Also even something like an activity that has am instruction booklet he has to follow, a bit like lego but more wordy if you can find anything like that

The correlation between kids who read daily and those who do well in exams is very strong, yes.

I think it's most important for them to read, in fairness. It's lovely that you're still reading with him but I would encourage (it's more of an enforced expectation with our DS, to be honest) at least 20 minutes of reading before bed on his own now, every day.

I know some kids take to reading and some don't and obviously no pressure should be put on kids to read above their level as that's pointless, but getting into an early routine of reading every day really does pay off long term.

The good thing for your DS is he's coming up to more mature books with actual storylines. If anything could kill a child's love of reading it's Biff, Chip & feckin Kipper!

Graphic novels, audio books and interactive adventure books such as Fighting Fantasy are good inroads to reading and consuming compelling narratives.

Comics maybe? Our school always said any reading helps

My son was the same-saw reading as my 'hobby' that I was trying to push him to do 😂

Frozen in Time (Ali Sparkes) and the Phantom Tolbooth were books that he actually really enjoyed in Y5 though and make him want to find out what happened next, which he hasn't really cared about up until then it's the books at school. They were generally a book about children whose parents had died or about a lovely animal, who then died, or a war!

He's an adult not and does at least read on holidays which makes me happy!!

Yes, reading really is as beneficial as everyone says. It’s the key to success in nearly all other school subjects. Even something like Sport GCSE involves reading about sports and writing essays or reports.

I understand why you are choosing classics to read with your son, but classics are often written in more difficult language. It’s fine for you to read them to him if you want to, but it might be unhelpful and discouraging to expect him to read alternate pages.

I would go to the library or a bookshop with him, and together look at the blurbs of some books he might be interested in (fiction or non-fiction) until he finds one that he thinks he might like to read. Open it at random on a page with a reasonable amount of print and ask him to read it aloud. If there are more than five words he can’t read or doesn’t know the meaning of on one page it’s too hard for him.

While trying to build his enthusiasm and ability I wouldn't worry too much about "well written books". The key is to find books he’s interested in and enjoys reading, perhaps about a hobby, even if they seem dreadful to you or too easy for his age. You can very gradually increase the difficulty. I’m a primary teacher and I loathe some of the books some children in my class (especially boys) adore, e.g. Bunny vs Monkey. But I accept that anything that enthuses reluctant readers is a good idea!

GCSE exam papers have a reading age of 15-16 years old so long term you want to ensure your child's reading age is similar to their chronological one. The school would keep an eye on this (from my experience) and put interventions in place. These could be extra curricular or a lower English set. In the meantime, reading together is your pre-intervention to prevent that. It is important but there is a fine balance of putting an older child off if it's too forced.

I think there are two separate issues here. One is to ensure he is reading regularly so that he continues to increase in fluidity and technical reading ability. Here I agree with many others in saying, just get him reading, whatever he is interested in is great.

However, there's another issue and here I'm more aligned to the ops idea of choosing well written books. There is a reason for this. It introduces them to more variety in vocabulary and sentence structure.

I tutored for 18 years and often came across teenagers who were getting stuck with reading comprehension because their range of vocabulary and understanding of more complex sentence structures was way below what was needed for GCSE.

Here I think that what the op is doing is ideal, and yes, yes, yes, it will be making a massive difference to his ability to comprehend more complex texts. If he is accepting of it and even seems to enjoy your time together then please keep on with it!

I think stories are important, but you can get quite a lot iof benefit from audio books rather than reading.
People say reading helps SPaG. I think it did nothing like that for DD2 who turned out to have dyslexia.

Audio books are great for this. They get all the sophisticated language, but spoon fed. Mine have really quite complex sentence structure now, but it’s not from the books they’ve read physically. They heard loads- the Artemis Fowl series, Alex Ryder, Harry Potter, as well as more traditional ones.

It's not just the outward benefits that makes reading important, it's the other less obvious benefits too.
Like reducing stress and improving focus, problem solving and concentration. A major benefit is improving empathy.
This is going to be a big problem as less and less kids are reading, or even watching tv and films. The less people are exposed to stories, fiction or real, the less they'll understand humanity.

If you don’t read you can’t write. It’s as simple as that

This.

Possibly a controversial opinion but I find "reading" at school so one dimensional. If you're not the creative writing type it can leave you cold.

I was a straight A student, apart from English Literature in which I got a B. Not a brag just setting the scene. I have a PhD in chemistry, and now work in law where I read huge volumes of documents and draft lots of legal documents. I'm very logical and see reading and writing as a way to communicate ideas only. I'm not really interested in stories if I'm being honest.

I've never read fiction for pleasure. I just don't find it interesting or enjoyable.
When I was at school I read what was necessary but I can count on one hand the number of fiction books I've read for pleasure.

These days I enjoy reading autobiographies, popular science books, books on psychology etc.

In summary, I don't think it will hold him back if he's motivated in other areas and generally academic. Don't make him do something he hates!

Maybe he could choose some different books but I wouldn't stress (as I say, probably an unpopular opinion!)

Echoing what a lot of others have said really.

My dd was a bit behind the curve being a fluent reader, but by ks2 had a good reading age and excellent comprehension. But she wasn't very keen on reading fiction.
Her primary school had a 'reading challenge' which was all about quantity rather than quality really. But they had a competition with questions on three specific books - so she read those (slowly but evidently thoroughly, comprehending and retaining rather than wolfing down the story) and to the visible annoyance of the head of English won the prize.

However she loved me reading 'classic books' to her - I continued doing that into her teens (by which time it was Discworld).

She's an engineer now, reads nonfiction and a few detective books.

Carry on doing what you're doing.
And Stig of the Dump isn't 'dreary', it's a memorable classic!