Last Updated on April 15, 2024 by Ali Hamza
As a kid with a bibliophile mother, I had grown up looking at the colossal bookshelves covering almost every inch of our walls. Not to mention the trunks full of her favourite tomes, too! Her ultimate dream was to convert that shelf into a little library one day to her friends and acquaintances. As a 5-year-old, I would always look up at her sparkling eyes while she set her heart out and wondered why? Yet, her motive was simple. My mother wanted me to understand that reading is something that brings happiness and value to life. Therefore, she always invested quality time in reading stories to me. Essay Writers That was my mother’s strategy to change my perception of reading. What’s yours? If you don’t have one yet, read through these productive ways to make your kids enjoy reading.
Read to them
My mother made sure that we never missed our treasured bedtime reading ritual. She would put me in her lap, hold me fondly, and help me traverse the magical world of stories. I still remember some of them even today!
Make this a part of your daily routine too.
When your child is little and knows a few words, hold colorful books with adventurous stories in their hands. They would love reading about a bear going out on a mission to find their friends. Sit with your kid, explain the pictures to them, and if possible, invent more stories from them for your little one. And as your kid grows, choose books that adhere to their developmental stage. Talk to your kid more and more about books and stories. Let them imagine. Let them wonder.
Encourage tech-led reading habits
Do not let your kid discover that there can be something more exciting and fulfilling in terms of experience than reading books. For that, you should harness the efficiency of technology to keep them engaged. Conjugate the habit of reading and technology to make learning an enjoyable process. This way, your kids will stay motivated while engaging with ideas in multiple modalities. Assistive tech tools like audiobooks, digital text-to-speech, and optical character recognition will let kids see and hear texts simultaneously.
There are tools like Reading Eggs that provide user-centric reading options and deploy self-paced learning habits that match the child’s abilities effectively. It also rewards children for reaching new levels and helps them stay on track.
Be a good example
Like my Mom was to me – an accurate role model. It is only by being a passionate reader that you can produce another passionate reader. According to a survey, 48% of kids were reported to have developed a fascination towards reading colorful books by their parents. However, note that this fascination will dwindle if your kid does not find anyone else burying their head into a book. So, shift your attention from your daily chores and spend time reading books. UTS Referencing tool It is only when your child sees an avid reader walking around in the house with a book in their hand that your child will also develop a love for reading.
As parents, you should not be stressed in trying to understand the tricks that will let your child grow into someone successful. Instead, take small steps by being an example to them. Grabbing a book for your child’s sake is one of the steps!
Incorporate several developmental domains
Reading should be exciting and not monotonous. Research suggests that incorporating multiple senses helps children learn the best. Therefore, choose several areas of development by deploying hands-on learning procedures to enhance the outcomes of reading books. Once your child has started looking upon you as their model and has already begun to use technology, implement as many senses as possible in the reading habit. You can implement several developmental domains by encouraging early-reading skills and helping them recognise letters.
Sign up for apps that offer puzzle games and alphabet crafts that allow your child to know which letters sound like what and what their actual shape is. Other games, including gross motor skills, make letters move to build new words. Take your child’s considerations into account and match activities accordingly.
Ask questions
Ask easy and pertinent questions that encourage your child to interact with the story and understand the roles of the characters. This way, you will ensure your child’s productive development of comprehension skills. You might miss the boat as a role model if your only intention is to make your child develop the habit of reading. It is vital that your child is reading because they can decode the meaning of the content. Understand that there is no point in just reading without comprehending the content’s meaning.
When your child is too small to distinguish between characters, point at cats and say, “This is the picture of the cat.” This way, you will help build your child’s vocabulary. And as they grow, ask them to point at the characters by themselves.
Talk to your kids
Remember that your child needs your presence more than they need your presents. So, try to spend a lot of time with the newest family member. Talk to them and drown them in your language. Talk to them about your reading habits, family, education, and more. Talk to them about everything you did as a child (yawning, eating, reading, sleeping, etc.). However, try not to pressurise them with the talking sessions. Being unpleasant to the kid will never work on a positive note and can be frustrating for both of you. For example, if you talk to your 24-months old about how you struggled to find your job, they will run away to a different room. But talking about how much your mother loved you or the books you read as a child will be more meaningful.
Remember that reading is a language activity. Your kid will want to learn about a language more if they enjoy hearing how it sounds and speaking it eventually. Also, if you feel dopey while interacting with your child, sign up with this app.
Parting thoughts,
Make reading a habit, and you will see your child learning to read. Narrate bedtime stories to them and make your kid stay for at least half-an-hours after lunch to read. Take your kids to libraries and invest in making your kid a lifelong reader. Make reading fun, too. Also, do not forget to reward your child after they finish reading a chapter or even be attentive when you narrate a story. Make reading an essential part of your family routine. Allow your child to learn at their own pace. This way, you will find your child picking books up for themselves and, eventually, developing a love for reading.
