Make your child love reading !

Learning to read allows one to discover a world that is both fun and creative – the world of detective novels, of fantastic stories, or even of the great French writers. And yet, each time you show your child a book, it's the same old story! It's either too long, or there aren't enough pictures, and you wind up hearing the dreaded phrase: "I don't like reading!" So what to do when your child doesn't enjoy reading? Why do some children always have their nose in a book starting from a young age, whereas others flee them like the plague? First off, it is important not to overreact, and to understand the reasons that can lead your child to not taking an interest in a world that is still new to them... 

Why won't they open a book? 

Upon entering first grade, your child, who up until then had only seen books as things full of little obscure symbols, will slowly start to learn to read. And even though they are only just getting started, they already know that "Reading is important!" Whether it is those around them or their teacher, the whole world suddenly seems focused on one thing: reading.

Why? Quite simply because in many countries, reading is usually associated with success in school. Books allow you to learn, and to improve your vocabulary and your understanding of the world. What is more, you are asked to read a lot of books in school, and being able to enjoy doing so seems to give your child a little advantage in terms of all of the difficulties that they are going to encounter. With all of this pressure around books, it would be hard for your child to not feel it! Up until now, reading had been a relaxing and enjoyable experience for them, but now they are learning that they must decipher, decode, and make links between sounds and between letters.

Faced with all this work, let's be honest, who wouldn't be a bit afraid?  While some children don't have much trouble overcoming this barrier, others wind up slowly associating reading with something like forced labor.

Yet it is important to understand that reading is not the only way of gaining more exposure to the world! Music and drawing, for example, are equally interesting activities that can help them to better apprehend what is going on around then. Reading is important, true, but you shouldn't worry if your child doesn't seem interested at all. Plus, just because they don't like reading at the age of 6 doesn't mean they won't uncover a passion for doing so later on in their studies or during their adult life!

Finally, it is possible that, upon closer inspection, your child is, in fact, reading. They may not have much of an appreciation for Maupassant, but they probably open up comic books, non-fiction, or manga. There is no such thing as good or bad reading!

Most importantly, don't force them to read!

It is important to understand that you cannot force a child to like reading. Daniel Pennac, in Reads like A Novel, wrote on this topic: 

"The verb to read can't stand the imperative. It shares this aversion with several other verbs: the verb to love, the verb to dream... Of course, one can always try. Go ahead: 'Love me!', 'Dream!', 'Read! Go on, read, for goodness sake, I order you to read!' – The result? Zilch."

Helping your child to read isn't a matter of obligation, it is more about initiation. You have to show them that reading isn't just about work but that it can also turn out to be a lot of fun! What you have on your side? The world of books is nearly infinite. Most bookworms became passionate about reading after a book that you might say "just clicks." Help your child to discover a world that resembles them and that seems liable to interest them. You can, for example, start with a non-fiction book that features lots of pictures, and that might be easier to understand due to being written in the present. Certainly don't force them in any way. Give them the opportunity to discover a story with you, and if you notice that they seem especially drawn to a given type of book, give them permission to read those books. It doesn't matter what the books in question are about! They have to develop their own taste for reading.