So…you’ve got a curious, intelligent, creative, wonderful kiddo who doesn’t seem particularly interested in reading. It can be frustrating to handle this as a caregiver, especially when you yourself are a literature lover. While we can recognize that many people, including children, genuinely aren’t interested in reading, we can also understand that it’s still a crucial skill that needs to be practiced. It helps us build our language skills and explore worlds and circumstances we never would otherwise. I am of the opinion that there’s a book out there for everyone and that once it’s found, the floodgates open. But how on earth can we encourage literary exploration with kiddos who simply aren’t interested?
It’s a lot more fun than it might seem — we encourage their language development, we set a good example, and we have fun with it. Like anything else in caregiving, we find out where their needs are so that we can meet them where they’re at. In this blog, I’d like to focus on small-action, big-impact choices we can make to better our children’s and students’ relationship with reading.
1. Talk, talk, TALK!
Reading is a language skill, just like speaking and signing. When we hold conversations with our little ones, we help them develop these skills in real-time. Whether we are mimicking a four-months-old’s “Blaaaaaaaaagh,” asking our preschoolers what they did at school, or swapping jokes with our grade-schoolers, we’re encouraging them to explore the different ways language can build their world. If your kiddo is finding it difficult to stay focused with a board book or picture book, you can start encouraging the growth of attention span by telling verbal stories. What was your favorite thing to hear about as a child? Many children enjoy learning about adult life — you can narrate daily tasks like brewing your morning coffee, driving to and from school or making dinner. You can tell them about your day and ask them questions about theirs. You can even play my favorite conversation game and ask them random questions — what would your superpower be if you were a superhero? What’s your favorite kind of weather and why? These conversation prompts encourage creativity, fun, and — you guessed it — language development. You can also put captions on the television when you’re enjoying a movie, a TV show, or a sports game as a family. This is a really easy way to show kiddos that the symbols we use for words have more meaning than simple squiggles.
2. Lead by example
How can we expect our kiddos to want to read if they never witness *us* enjoying it? That’s like telling them to eat their veggies and never eating them ourselves. When I was young (and to this day!), my mother always had a book on her — whether it was a Nora Roberts epic, a King horror story, or a Grisham thriller, she didn’t go anywhere without a book tucked into her bag. She read everywhere — to my siblings and me before bed, in waiting rooms, in the car, while my dad was driving, during any minute she could get to herself. The spines of her home library books called to me before I could walk! But you don’t need a home library or all the time in the world to set an example of loving reading for your children. There are many things you can do! You can set aside a kitchen timer for fifteen (or five, or twenty, whatever works for you!) minutes to make it clear to your kiddos that this is your reading time and ask that they not interrupt until they hear or see the timer end. If they want to hang out with you or be close to you, encourage them to grab their own book so that you can read in tandem. You can also talk about books you’ve liked and why you liked them. If something reminds you of a favorite story, mention it!
3. Follow your kiddo’s interests, no matter what they are!
Kids like to learn, mostly because they are so new to this world and everything feels like the coolest thing ever. And they’re just like grown-ups in that they’ve got their own tastes – some will like to read nonfiction and explore real-world representations of their favorite topics and some will prefer fantastical stories set in faraway universes. As much as it’s frustrating to admit, they’re not necessarily going to have the same interests we do – even though we know they’d really, truly love astronomy if they just gave it a chance. It can be a lot more effective in this stage of their journey to take the passenger seat and learn alongside them. If they want to know everything about arctic foxes and have zero interest in anything else, they’re probably in a stage where the best way to encourage that voracity is to feed their brain with what it wants…books about arctic foxes, of course.
However, there are many ways to gently encourage them to branch out. If you notice that your little one is gobbling up every book they can about dinosaurs, begin telling them about how dinosaurs were discovered and the stories that went along with them. Find a book about fossils, archaeology, or other ancient animals, and see how they respond. Using current interests as a bridge to new ones is a technique I use with myself to find new books to read when I’m in a book rut. I like to go to my favorite nonfiction section to sniff out new titles by picking books off the shelves and putting them back if they don’t suit me. This works for any interest and any age, and results in a lot of new interests that one might not normally find.
4. Follow up with curiosity
It’s super important to facilitate discussion after enjoying a good book. With kids, this can look like asking them who their favorite character is and why, what the coolest scene was, and if anything reminded them of real life. (You can do this with movies and television shows, too!) This helps to strengthen their connections between fiction and reality, develop critical thinking skills, and otherwise prepare them to engage with the big wide world we live in. Also, these discussions can allow you to better understand what your kid likes and dislikes about reading so that you can pick great books in the future!
It’s incredibly valuable to seek out books that showcase diversity, for children of both marginalized and non-marginalized communities. (If you’ve read our blogs before, you might recognize the ideas of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop!) All children deserve to see themselves represented positively and neutrally, and it’s become a lot easier in recent years to locate books with diverse characters. It’s also crucial to introduce children who aren’t in these communities to others’ differences through books — when people get a chance to read about people who are different from them as main characters, it helps them to build their ideas of how others live and how to respect and be kind to them.
5. Visit us! 
Yes, I’m biased – but it’s for a good reason! We have a thousand and one resources for families of all walks of life. We’ve got books, of course, but we also have audiobooks, read-alongs, CDs and DVDs, all of which are enjoyable ways to encourage language development and/or a fascination with reading in young ones. If sitting down and reading is difficult for your energetic kiddo, see if they’d like to enjoy our playaways, our audiobooks.
Read-along books are very similar to the book-with-a-CD you may have had as a kid; they are regular books with a small computer attached to their front cover. With a press of a button, the computer reads the book aloud, playing a sound to mark when a page needs to be turned. We’ve got fiction and nonfiction picture books and chapter books! They are wonderful resources for anyone who finds it difficult to parse out difficult words, for those who are learning English, and for those who simply enjoy being read to. These read-alongs can also be a helpful tool for some dyslexic folks. They even have headphone jacks for those times when reading calls, but the situation doesn’t (waiting rooms and Mom’s office love the headphone jack!).
I sincerely hope this reading advice has been useful for you and your reader. If you’re looking for resources for your readers, check out the Brand-New Readers and First Chapter Book kits we’ve got. We here at DBRL are determined to make sure every kid can find a book they’ll love – don’t be afraid to tell us what’s working and what isn’t so we can figure out the best resources for you and your families. Oh, and happy National Library Lover’s Month!
