Helping Chidlren Develop Interest In Reading
Expose Children to books and more books
For a first reading experience, an infant may sit in your lap while you point to pictures in a sturdy cardboard book. Toddlers like to turn the book pages and identify objects in the pictures. Big books help children see the relationship between spoken and written words more easily. Wordless picture books encourage young children to tell their own stories.
Be a reading model for children
Demonstrate the importance and usefulness of print. Read signs on the street and in the drug store during a neighborhood walk. Read the directions aloud while you make a snack together. Give children “junk” mail to look over while you read your mail. Show them how reading gives you pleasure as you share a book together.
Provide a print-rich environment that offers reasons to read
Immerse children in print. Put grocery boxes and cans with labels in the housekeeping corner, along with a collection of coupons to read. Display posters of labeled buildings and cities in the block area. Hang recipe charts in the snack area. Encourage children to use print to convey their ideas. To help children eventually discriminate between scribbling, then letters and finally words which have meaning, provide print-making materials such as paper and crayons, and ready-made “print” such as felt or magnetic letters. Encourage them to dictate stories or lists for group books or experience charts that everyone can try reading.
Extend children's reading experiences
Allow lots of time to ask and answer questions about stories you share. Discuss characters's actions and emotions, and help children relate story plots and events to their own experiences. Encourage follow-up activities such as retelling a story in their own words.