Building a Love for Reading

Role of Parents in building reading habits

Parents influence the day-to-day lives of their children. Through your conversations, actions, remarks, children are like a sponge– taking it all in. Therefore, parents and caregivers play a substantial role in what children find to be important. Parental involvement in building reading habits can have a lasting impact on children as they use this essential skill to extract important information in this media-filled world or use it for daily communication as well as any field of study that may pique their interest. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the School Transition Study found “that family involvement increases children’s positive feelings about literacy, which improves their literacy performance. In other words, children start feeling better about literacy and like literacy more when their parents are involved in their education.” 

One major role parents or caregivers can have in building reading habits is reading aloud to your child. Reading to your child or reading together can pose the following benefits: 

• Supporting Cognitive Development

• Improving Language Skills

• Preparing for Academic Success

• Tapping into Creativity and Imagination

• Improving Concentration and Focus

• Building a Close Bond with Your Child

Good Reading Habits at Home

As we spend time building value around reading, time will inevitably need to be given to build this habit. Creating structures and routines at home can create a positive learning environment for children. 

Step 1: Find a time and place for reading

Will this be before or after dinner? Will it be after snack time when your child gets home from school? Think about your schedule as a family and find a consistent time each day in your schedule for reading. Think about how you as a parent will spend this time as your child reads. Your child may need your support depending on their age or reading level. 

Step 2: Parents modeling reading practices

As previously mentioned, parents or caregivers play an important role in your child’s growth and development. Children learn through modeling. As parents, modeling reading at home can boost a child’s interest in reading. You can also talk about what you’ve read whether it be books, online content, news, etc. Taking trips to the library and being on the reading journey with your child can be beneficial. As your children see you read, they begin to understand that this is an everyday practice. 

Step 3: Take interest in your child’s interests

What kind of books do your children enjoy? What other interests do they have and how can you find books to promote their interest? Think about a child who enjoys making new friends. Maybe you find books about cultivating new friendships. Or a child who enjoys building– how can a how-to book or nonfiction book convert their interest into reality? 

Step 4: Monitor a child’s comprehension

It’s not only about reading each day and finding the right book, children need to understand what they are reading. Comprehension is a major factor that can impact a child’s experience while reading. Once children have comprehension skills, reading can become a source of learning.

Parents can use AI tools to create questions to ask their children about the book they are reading. Another option is to read the same book as your child or do a quick search on the books your child is reading, so you can ask the appropriate questions. Parents and caregivers can engage children in art projects or writing tasks related to the book. 

Reading to Learn

Reading is more than fiction stories; it is a tool for learning. The information shared above should help families practice healthy reading habits and create time for reading. In this section let’s talk about the next step: moving from learning to read to reading to learn. This happens around middle to late elementary school. For example, when kids come across an unfamiliar word, they look it up, and in doing so, they learn new vocabulary as they are reading. Or they use books as a form of research to learn about an area of interest. Reading to learn involves more independence. However this does not mean children are not absorbing new information when learning to read. Both go hand in hand. 

Reading to learn is not only limited to nonfiction books. Children can learn a lot about what life is like around the world by reading stories about children who come from a different background. They can learn life lessons by reading traditional literature like folktales or fables. Reading can be taken online through the use of online databases with research articles and journals. Expanding to different forms of reading can help children gain a global point of view and use reading as a tool to navigate their interests in science or history.

As we focus on instilling a love for reading in our children, we must think about everything we will learn about them through their book choices. Here are some resources to help parents better understand their children as readers. Click here to access a reading survey you can give to your child to learn more about their reading preferences.