Developing Your Child's Love for Reading
Spend a few minutes every day reading with your child. Doing so helps your child develop a love of reading and creates a wonderful opportunity to develop the pre-reading skills that are so necessary to a solid foundation. It benefits your child for a multitude of reasons, like:
- Increasing your child's vocabulary.
- Expanding your child’s experiential background.
- Encouraging healthy entertainment habits.
- Developing the parent/child bond.
- Building study habits.
You can never read too much to your child, but sometimes you wonder, are you reading enough?
How much reading you do with your child depends on your child’s attention span. When you read to your child, you should pay attention to how engaged he or she is with the activity. Once your child begins to get distracted, put the book down and come back to it at a later point in the day.
Key tips for encouraging your child’s love of reading:
- Have books available in a special reading area of your home.
- Take regular trips to the public library to read books and check out books to bring home.
- Always keep a book available in the car for situations when your child might get bored.
When I was the principal, I'd tell the kids every morning to always have a book in their hand so that they could read. I was a role model for them, as their principal and as someone on TV (the closed circuit morning announcements shown in the classrooms), just as you are your child's biggest role model.
My words had a huge influence on those kids. Many parents approached me to say that their kid always walked around with a book, which comes in handy when they're waiting for you to get gas or waiting for the doctor at an appointment.
In today’s digital age, it is so easy to hand your child a game on your phone to keep him or her entertained, but resist! Before handing your child a toy or a game, hand him or her a book. Even before your child knows how to read, it is helpful for him or her to get used to turning pages and analyzing the pictures on them.
Your child may not be able to read the words on the page just yet, but the early learning process helps them develop recognition for the words. Once your child reaches Pre-K and first grade, these practices will significantly benefit the ease and speed at which he or she learns to read.