Help Your Child Build a Reading Habit

The National Literacy Survey (NLS), UK, released in February 2020, has found that only 25% of children surveyed read every day; this is the lowest level – ever – recorded by the NLS since they started the survey in 2005.

Why kids should read?

Parents and children know that reading is important for our emotional and intellectual growth. Just as exercising strengthens muscles, reading ‘exercises’ the brain. The process of recognizing symbols as alphabets, associating sounds with those alphabets, combining sounds to create words, stringing words into sentences, and sentences into stories exercises the brain (unlike the passive watching of television) and has been shown to strengthen brain development.

Reading improves a child’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ). When children read stories that are themed around science, history, or culture, these books impart a ‘soft’ education to kids. When they read often, it improves English grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. And kids who read well, write well. Reading also helps improve the other important component of success – Emotional Quotient (EQ). A reader puts themselves in the shoes of the protagonist when they read. They feel the emotions of the protagonist as if it is happening to them. A child then develops that part of the brain that feels empathy by reading about characters in other countries who face challenging situations. The growth of IQ and EQ allows a child to communicate knowledgeably about subjects far removed from academics and perpetuates a cycle that builds their confidence.

Why do kids find reading so challenging?

If reading is so obviously important and has many benefits for children, why then are children reading less?                       

Children have a choice of what to do in their free time: to indulge in easy dopamine (a pleasure hormone) inducing activities such as electronics and social media, play, or read books. Reading is not easy – it’s an exercise for the brain. Just as we would rather be lazy and watch a movie instead of hitting the gym, the brain is also a pleasure seeker. Designers of games and social media have done in-depth studies on the dopamine cycle of the brain. They pitch games to young minds in such a way that the games are challenging enough to keep the gamer engaged but never so hard that one has to make too much of an effort to play them. The gamers among parents reading this article will recognize the truth of this statement. Books stand no chance against these well-calibrated electronics that are out to hook children.

Even with the older kids, the dearth for book consumption is very much felt. Most books read are strictly in correlation to their academics or their career down the road. Thus, the fiction genre with all its aura, creativity, and personal point of view has taken a hit.

The irony of the situation is that in the past few decades the literacy rate has shot up but reading habits have declined.

How to change this?

As parents are we then helpless to turn this tide?                                                                                                                                             

I am the mother of two boys. My elder son took to reading naturally; all I had to do was guide his reading with the right kind of books. With my younger son, who was born at the same time that the iPhone was introduced, it was a very different story. I had to make an effort and follow tactics (I’ll outline these shortly) to encourage him to become an avid reader. My point is that, with your active participation, it can be done – your child can become a reader. It’s never too late to build the reading habit in kids but it’s definitely easier if we start early.

Parents and teachers should read aloud to children - even older children; this is the single most effective activity that helps children build a reading habit. Second, just as telling children to eat dal, roti, and rice because its healthy is a sure-shot way of turning them off these foods, telling children to read because it’s good for them, will turn them off reading. Also, avoid telling kids that ‘if you read this book, you can watch TV: you’ve made reading the boring activity that needs to get done to get to the fun activity. Discuss the book and really listen to what your child says. Ask things like ‘what did you like/ dislike about the book?’, ‘if the antagonist were good, how would it change the story?’, or ‘how many stars would you give a book?’. Finally, one of the most important things that parents can do is to provide their children with some really good books.

Reading might be a solitary activity, but it’s not done in a bubble. Children tend to follow and imitate the activities being performed by their surroundings. When they see their friends playing on their phones, they also feel an urge to follow this pattern of behaviour and not feel left out. The crowd the child associates themselves with matters a lot if you want to inculcate reading habits in them. If they have a group of friends with whom they can have a spirited conversation over books and literature, there will be no need to force them to sit down and read a book. This will become second-nature for them. It also doesn’t matter if the friends are virtual or physically present. Virtual book clubs and groups can accomplish this purpose just the same. All that matters is creating a culture around them revolving around good literature.

My website, www.kidsmustread.com address this last need. One only has to enter the child’s age and reading level in our search engine to generate a fabulous list of recommended books. The books are customized to your child because we recognize that an eight-year-old avid reader cannot read the same books as a ten-year-old reluctant reader. These books have been read cover to cover by me and are carefully curated to span genres, authors, and themes but importantly, these books hero the story. To increase reading commitment, you could involve your child by asking them to select the books that they’d like to read from the Kids Must Read recommended reading list. Eventually, encourage them to try books from genres and authors that they don’t normally read – expand their world vision.

It’s never too late to develop the reading habit in children but we should recognize that parents need to play a more active role in helping children discover the Joy of Reading.

Stay Tuned, Stay Relevant!