What to do if your child hates books

When she isn’t working, Karen Muya, a mother of two, likes to curl up with a good book.

She is a high school teacher of English and literature and she naturally hoped to pass on her love for books by beginning to read to her children from infancy.

While her 11-year-old enjoys reading, her eight-year-old would rather take on the house chores than curl up with a book.

At the beginning of the year, she was worried that her son was lacking in vocabulary and attempted to fix it by offering him goodies in exchange for reading a number of pages daily.

“This definitely got him to read more but the emphasis was now on finishing the book, not actually reading so I had to stop.”

Like this eight-year-old, there are children who hate to read whether for school or for pleasure.

Seeing as society has stopped demanding academic prowess and children are increasingly being encouraged to exploits their gifts and talents a parent might think that a child’s dislike for books, especially a child who is gifted in other areas, isn’t a cause for concern. Is it?

Fundamental skill

Mr. Samuel Kimamo an educationist and the director of The Lakewood Schools in Nairobi insists that even if the education system is now recognising talents and other non-academic interests, reading is fundamental.

Other than academic excellence, reading widely will give the child above average communication skills and a mastery of language, which are both very vital in this era of communication. For the creatives, he notes that educational achievements often feed the creative genius.

“In my experience, many reluctant readers are struggling readers. A child could have a physical problem which makes it hard for them to read. It may be making their eyes hurt. Before placing a label on your child pay close attention to rule out attention disorders or dyslexia,” he says.

Getting a younger child to read can be as easy as buying colorful books. What of the parent whose older child can read but doesn’t?

“I stopped insisting on educative reading,” shares Leah, also a mother of two. She gave up trying to get her children to read school texts and got them all other kinds of comics, books and magazines that interest them. As long as they are reading, you actually see their minds opening,” she says.

Give them a choice

According to Esme Codell, a children’s literature specialist in her book How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, whether your child becomes a voracious reader or not may be determined by giving them the freedom of choice; not the choice of whether or not to read but the choice of choosing the material they will enjoy reading.

She also notes that punishment and reward systems which a parent might be tempted to use to get her child to love reading are often counterproductive as it takes the fun out of it and makes reading feel like a forced task.

What has worked for Mr Kimamo with his students is incorporating emerging technology in reading.

“I have seen that older children especially enjoying reading from screens. Let them read from a tablet or an iPad as that might interest them more than paper.”

The most important thing however, he says, is not to give up on your child.