What should I do if my child doesn’t like reading?

We have known since childhood that books are the ladder of human progress. In fact, this is not just a proverb, but a fact. However, in today's life, many children like to play with mobile phones and computers and neglect reading. So what should we do?

Modern life is fast-paced and electronic products are flooding our lives. This has caused many people to lose the habit of reading and has also led to many children not having the habit of reading. Family reasons are always the main reason for a child's problems.

Reading ability is limited

Reading is not something that you are born with; it is a combination of innate development and acquired learning. Innately, the child needs to develop physically and mentally and maturely; acquiredly, someone needs to guide him to read books so that the child can master sufficient oral language and literacy. One of the reasons why children don't like reading is that their reading ability limits their interest in reading. Children are in the learning stage, especially those in kindergarten or primary school, whose knowledge and abilities are limited. Maybe the child can’t put the new book down one second, but encounters difficulties and frustrations during the reading process the next second, so the child gives up reading and turns to other activities. This requires parents to fully consider their children's level of knowledge when choosing books for their children and adopt a graded reading method so that their children can read suitable books at the appropriate age. Before children read, it is best to help them clear the obstacles of new words in the book, so that they will not stutter when reading and will be willing to read. Or parents can read with their children, it is best to carry out literacy and reading at the same time.

Heavy homework and little time for reading

Under the current exam-oriented education system, children are under great study pressure, have heavy academic burdens, and have a lot of homework. After completing the teaching content in school, children are exhausted. Parents also drag their children to various training classes and special interest classes on weekends and after-school time. Many children leave school and go back to class. Where do they find time to read? Especially parents whose children are lagging behind in academic performance hope that their children will spend more time on studying, and make up for it later by reading extracurricular books.

Although children have heavy study tasks, extracurricular reading is still the most important part of their growth. Children are in the golden period of learning, and textbooks are far from satisfying their thirst for knowledge. To improve children's reading ability, we must first allow children to have time to read. In-class learning can never completely replace children's extracurricular reading. This should attract the attention of parents.

Parents restrict children from reading extracurricular books

Many parents believe that the primary school stage is the most valuable time for laying the foundation. Even teachers constantly emphasize to parents the importance of scores. Therefore, parents increasingly limit their children’s time for playing and reading extracurricular books, just so that their children can learn more knowledge.

However, the drawbacks of this educational method begin to emerge in junior high school. Many junior high school teachers have found that the children who relied on devoting all their time and energy to get high scores in elementary school saw their grades drop rapidly after entering junior high school. The more these children studied, the more tired they became, and the less they could learn. It is precisely those children who had mediocre grades in elementary school but who are well-read and knowledgeable who have great room for improvement in their grades and are thus able to catch up. Maybe not all children will follow this rule, but it also serves as a wake-up call to parents that the importance of extracurricular reading cannot be ignored. Children have a strong desire for knowledge. If their thinking is fixed on the classroom or textbooks, their future knowledge base will undoubtedly be weak and they will easily be eliminated by society.