Ds not reading at home.

[Eruss]

My DS used to enjoy reading, was into the Tom Gates & wimpy kid books etc, then sometime last year he just stopped & with the lack of routine and his mental health not being great we were just all over the place.
He won’t even entertain the idea of picking up a book now and I’m worried as I’ve noticed he’s making a lot of simple spelling errors (that he used to get right)
Any advice or wisdom greatly appreciated.

Also to clarify I’m not pushing him too much on the reading at the moment but with the imminent return of schools and hopefully some normality I’m hoping we’ll manage to get into our old routine with some different types of reading in place.

My teenager saw reading as a chore and no matter what we did wasn’t interested.

We have found out now as a young adult they have dyslexia so perhaps it wasn’t the fact they weren’t interested but the fact they found it difficult. We had no idea and nor did the school.

Doing very well at university but has to work very hard.

Just be aware that a manga habit can be a very expensive one - they're very quick to read! Hopefully he'll be able to borrow plenty from his school library once back.

I’m a school librarian and my most reluctant readers love James Patterson’s Maximum Ride graphic novels, which are manga-style but without the back to front reading direction of real manga. Big Nate graphic novels also popular as are graphic versions of the Alex Rider series. Aside from that, the book version of something he has watched on TV could work.
Most importantly though, don’t stress. Hopefully he will be back into the routine of school soon and they will have some kind of expectations around reading and support him with this.

I thought this too, but on the rare occasions when they talk to us, they have a grasp of world events that could only come from reading on their phones. It isn’t all YouTube, thankfully.

Have you considered getting them to join a kids book club? Sometimes being with mates can motivate them

On the dining table - where we eat every meal - I have a few interesting mags and a couple of coffee table books. I mix them up regularly and keep the mags up to date.

Without fail my son will pick up and read whilst munching on a sandwich, wasting his cereal etc.

@Eruss

Sorry should say he’s just turned 12 (in year 7 of secondary school)

Does he have a phone? Many twelve year olds who have recently got a phone, go through a period of time where books don't interest them anymore. My daughter was obsessed with books when she was younger and around 11 I sadly started to realise she barely read anymore. Luckily, she is 13 now and has started to enjoy reading again. I think you could gently encourage him or let him explore some other hobbies and he will come back to it when he is ready.

I have this with Ds2. Ds1 was a good reader so I'm struggling with Ds2. I have suggested, asked for proof he is, monitored..... nothing has worked so far.

How about comics. My son got really into marvel comics etc

Not everyone will be in to reading but we have a strict no devices/mobiles upstairs or in bedrooms. They remain downstairs so my 14-year-old DS still reads before bed. He does have a Kindle Paperwhite (which has no internet connectivity) which he seems to prefer reading rather than a physical book. It's great as you can change the font size and you can find out what words mean.