Blurbs and Instructions
This is a winner for reluctant readers, and it’s all about letting their interests guide the activity. If they’re into gaming, maybe get them reading the back cover of their favourite game aloud to you. Or if they’re a movie buff get them reading synopsis and explaining the plot back in their own words. While this activity might not be reading an entire book, it is still activating those neural pathways, and building the child’s vocabulary. And most importantly, the child will see a correlation between what they enjoy doing and reading! Hopefully breaking the thought pattern that reading is ‘boring’.
Games
This might sound counterintuitive, but games are actually a great way to get a young person engaged with words and reading! Games like Scrabble, UNO, Go Fish or Bingo are fantastic for engaging young minds with language and memory skills. You can even make Go Fish with the Alphabet instead of numbers, and same for Bingo! Use words that are in your child’s range of vocabulary and get them saying them as you play.
Find their Niche
A special interest will help you find the perfect topic to read about! For example, if the young person is interested in cars, get them started reading car magazines. This will make a world of difference to their attention to what they’re reading.
Read Aloud and Make it Fun!
We all know that small victories should be celebrated, and this will help motivate your budding reader, and make them feel successful along the way! Try using our printable Reading Tracker or something similar to motivate and get the kids excited about reading.
Celebrate the Wins
We all know that small victories should be celebrated, and this will help motivate your budding reader, and make them feel successful along the way! Try using our printable Reading Tracker or something similar to motivate and get the kids excited about reading.
Don't Forget the Funny Bone!
Joke books are a fantastic way to engage a reluctant reader. You can do call and response from a good old-fashioned knock knock joke book. Or if the jokes aren’t hitting, try a puzzle book or a fun fact book about something the little one is interested in. We love these ones from Hinkler Books and use them often in our program, the biggest positive is that the kids absolutely love them!
Keep Books Nearby
Studies show that having books in the home correlates with young people having increased literacy skills. So simply having a small home library that the children can wander to and play with will increase their reading skills later in life. This is such a seemingly simple technique that has great benefits for the educational future of the children in your life. And it doesn’t need to be a giant library! Simply a shelf (that is accessible to them) featuring a small range of picture books (or novels, depending on age) and make that space comfortable for them.
We hope these tips help you inspire the little ones in your life to get excited about reading and let us know if any of these work for you!