As a parent, you have a profound influence on your child’s reading skills.  Even though your child probably reads daily at school, the extra practice he or she will get at home will be quite beneficial.

    Here are some of my favorite ways to help motivate your child to read and to encourage your child to read more often.

Do As I Do

‘Do as I do, not as I say’ couldn’t be any more applicable in this situation.  You can try to tell your child to read and read more often, but, if he or she isn’t interested, you’ve wasted your breath.  Instead, try to be a good role model for your child.  Rather than reading the paper when your child is in another room doing something else, start reading when your child is present.  If there’s nothing on the television, pick up a book.  Most likely, your child looks up to you and, in many ways, wants to be like you.  Why not show your child that you are a reader?

‘Litter Your House with Reading Material’

I use the word ‘litter’ in the most positive way.  If possible, try to keep all kinds of reading materials in different places around the house.  For example, you can keep magazines in the bathroom, graphic novels in the playroom, chapter books in the living room, and non-fiction picture books in the den.  By exposing your child to literature on a constant basis, your child will be more likely to read it if it’s there.

Read Good Stuff

If it is difficult to get your child to read, you better make sure that when he or she reads, the book better be good.  I suggest that for boys, graphic novels, non-fiction picture books, and classic novels are the best choices.  Graphic novels and non-fiction picture books are great because boys are visual learners.  Classic novels are also excellent choices because they offer your child a fantastic storyline and vocabulary rich text to help improve your child’s reading. 

Habits Can Be Good

Make reading habitual.  That is, create a designated time each day for your child to read.  Once your child gets comfortable with this time, he or she will read more often because of the security that this consistent activity has to offer.

Practice Reading Strategies for Confidence

Find out what reading strategy your child is learning in class.  For example, your child may be learning how to make inferences, visualize, find the cause and effect, or making connections.  Then, try to help your child work on these strategies at home.  This will boost your child’s confidence in reading because he or she will have improved his or her reading comprehension skills with you at home.

Special Outings

Make attempts to take your child to the library and/or bookstore every now and then.  Make the outing a special time (e.g. your child can have a special snack, you can buy a book, your child can bring a friend).  By doing so, your child will create an association between something fun and reading books (not that books aren’t fun in their own right!).

     Clearly you have a profound impact on your child’s reading comprehension skills at home.  Ultimately, you know your child best.  Find out what motivates your child and use it to improve your child’s reading.