Get your child hooked on books
For many children, reading for pleasure can play second fiddle to computer games or surfing the internet, meaning parents have an increasingly important role in helping encourage their kids to read
Spend time choosing a book
Learning about your child's likes and dislikes is an important part of encouraging them to become a reader. Start at the beginning by helping your child pick out a book they will enjoy.
Take a trip to your local library or bookshop and allow plenty of time for browsing. When you are choosing a book with your child, talk about the author and illustrators. Read the blurb on the cover and the opening pages to them or encourage them to read a little bit for themselves. Don't forget to be patient as early readers need time to make their choices.
Find authors and books that are suitable for your child's age group. The following may help you with ideas:
- Write Away reviews books for children written by education experts and practitioners and is easy to search under different age groups
- Love Reading offers booklists for parents
- ReadingZone provides book recommendations and children's book news
- Booktrust offers book recommendations and author information
Finding the right reading level
Use the Five Finger Test to find out whether a book is a suitable level for your child:
- Open the book somewhere in the middle and select a full page of text.
- Get them to read the page (aloud if possible).
- Put one finger up for every word your child cannot pronounce or does not know.
- If you get five fingers up for one page, the book is probably too difficult for them to read independently.
- If you do not hold up any fingers but they are reading very slowly, decoding every word, they may not enjoy reading this book.
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