It seems that too many students miss out on making reading a pleasure because of the overwhelming demands that arise from extra-curricular activities and homework, it allows little or no time for reading books aloud for the sake of fun.
Reading experts tell us that when children enjoy reading, they are more likely to do more
of it. Once reading skills are mastered, children enjoy the activity and read for pleasure. More importantly, the University of London’s Institute of Education Children has released a study showing that reading for pleasure can “significantly” improve a child’s school performance including vocabulary development and impact on spelling and mathematics.
Parents play an important role to encourage children to read even in the digital age. 15-20 minutes of daily reading aloud make it a routine, eliminate distractions and focus on the enjoyable shared reading experience. When children who fall in love with books eventually grow up to be adults who continue their love affair with reading, enhancing their quality of life.
More ways to foster the love of reading:-
- Limit TV viewing.
- Set a mini-library at home, making reading materials are easy to reach.
- Make it a fun family activity by taking children to the library and letting them choose books that appeal to them.
- Give books or magazines as gifts on special occasions.
- Encourage older children read to their younger brothers and sisters.
- Activities to extend the reading experience.
- Introduce bookmarks.
- During reading aloud, be encouraging with comments like “good”, “terrific”, “excellent”, “well done”, etc.
- Read children’s favorite books again and again
- Parents demonstrate they value in reading, children also learn a lot from observing adults who model what effective readers do.
- Good for parents to take turns reading with kids — adults in turn gain opportunities to provide coaching and encouragement when listening to their children read aloud.
- Turn every reading aloud into positive experiences.
- Choose childcare providers who understand the importance of reading aloud and value talking to children
Bring Me a Book Hong Kong Smart Tips: Raising a life-long reader can be nurtured by parents having reading material of high-interest to children. The reduced time available to read for pleasure during school hours makes it more important for parents to read to children at home because it would eventually increase children reading achievement as well as school performance.
Source: Reading for pleasure puts children ahead in the classroom, study finds, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education
Percie Wong, Trainer of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong
