Four Steps to Encourage a Reluctant Reader

For those of us who love to read, finding a reluctant reader is somewhat akin to stumbling across a Bigfoot—we have heard they exist, but never quite believed it until we saw one for ourselves. Sadly, many children and adolescents will tell you they do not enjoy reading.

Helping our students believe they can enjoy reading is an important project for adults and teachers to take on. Reading has many benefits, including improving vocabulary and communication skills and teaching all of us how to be empathetic. What is frustrating is that most young children are excited and eager to learn to read books (or listen while books are read to them) when they are young. But somewhere along the way, their natural curiosity and eagerness to learn get pressed out of them. By the time children are out of elementary school, their pleasure for reading has declined. One in four tweens report reading for fun. Only one in five teenagers will read when it is not an assignment for school. (From: Fact Sheet: Reading in the Digital Age)

So how can we help our kids retain their natural love of learning and reading? Here are four things parents can do that will encourage reading for fun.

1. Allow reading to occur with no strings attached—no annotations, no journals, no graphic organizers to summarize what they read. Just give them a book and let them enjoy it. Read it with them if that is what they prefer. Or let them read it to you. If your child is older, read the book yourself, on your own time, so you can discuss it with them as they read along. My eight-year-old granddaughter reads the Harry Potter books with her mother. After each book, they watch the movie. It’s all she wants to talk about when she gets in the car on the days I pick her up from school. I’ve read the books too, so I ask her questions, shut up, and let her talk. And talk. And talk. 
    
2. Give the control of what to read to the child. Many times, we can eliminate struggles by giving some of the power away. After all, our objective is to get a book in their hands. Do we really need to dictate what the book must be? If your young reader gets to choose, they’ll pick what interests them. They may surprise you by what they pull from the library shelf. My oldest granddaughter got completely engrossed in Greek mythology while reading the Percy Jackson series. Series are great for sustaining their interest. She ended up using mythology as the theme for her birthday party when she turned twelve. I learned quite a bit about Greek gods that year as I helped her mother create decorations, games, and goodie bags for her friends.
   
   Of course, you retain veto rights. If you’re not sure what the book is about, look it up on Amazon.com and read the reviews posted there. Parents are great at blowing the whistle on anything they feel is inappropriate. Amazon reviews will also help you decide if the book is too difficult for your child, as they typically rank the books by what age-group they fit. 
   
   
   
   Also, be open to unorthodox reading sources. Your soccer-crazy kiddo may devour a blog about their favorite team. A child interested in fashion might eagerly await the next posting on a website hosted by a designer. Graphic novels are a very popular media for students as well. You may feel like they’re reading nothing but a comic strip, but the artwork takes the place of words, and understanding the pared-down verbiage requires quite a bit of inference skill. Your child will learn critical thinking without even realizing it, all while enjoying the story. 
   
   And in our technology-saturated world, giving a child a Nook, an iPad, or a Kindle from which to read may make reading feel more like scrolling on social media, which may appeal to your student.
    
3. Set aside time for reading, especially during the summer months when students are allowed to “turn off” their thinking caps. If you stay home with them during the day, join them with a book of your own. Model what you want them to do. Make it a fun activity by baking cookies beforehand, or brewing tea, then cuddle on the sofa or outside in a hammock with your snacks and books. Enjoy it together. If you work outside of the home and your kids are old enough to stay home alone, send them a text each day at a certain time and ask them to read for an hour. Be prepared to discuss what they read when you get home, not as a quiz, but simply to hear what they liked about their story that day.
   
   
    
4. If you have a struggling reader, play the audio version of the book while your child follows along with the paper copy. Many audio book narrators do special voices with the different characters, and they are fun to listen to. You can download the Audible app on your smartphone. I have a Bluetooth option in my car that allows me to play media from my phone through my car speakers. If you have a drive each day to school or daycare, your reading time could happen in the car. 
   
   
   
   Other listeners on Audible will rank the book on three categories: overall, performance, and story. You can buy a membership with Audible for $15 a month, and you get “credits” each month that you use to buy the books. Once they’re purchased, they remain in your “library” on your phone unless you return them. Public libraries also offer audio books, and best of all, they’re free. 

Teaching a child to love reading is one of the best gifts you can give. It is well worth the effort it may take to persuade your reluctant reader to give it another try. If your child doesn’t like reading, then they probably just haven’t met the right book yet.