Can you turn a boy into a bookworm?
Yes – and no.
Some boys are natural readers. Others need a bit (OK, a lot!) more encouragement and persuasion. Reading may never be your son’s preferred activity, but there’s a lot you can do to reduce his reluctance to read and help him find enjoyment and information on the page.
To help you out with this, this article will be exploring some of the best ways to encourage your son to read more, giving you a range of tips that will make the process much smoother.
The Right Books
No one likes to sit down and read a book that they find boring. This can be a tiresome process, making most people feel as though they would like to do something else. You need to provide the right books to stimulate a young boy’s mind when you are working on this with your son and options like high interest reading for struggling readers can be great tools to help with this. It’s always crucial to make sure that the books you give to your son will appeal to him. Better yet: Let your son choose his own reading material.
The Right Tools
While many people value the chance to comb through pages made from paper, modern technology has turned books into a digital resource. Tools like Amazon’s Kindle can be used to download and read books with ease, and providing your son with technology like this could be a good way to make reading more appealing. E-readers allow readers to easily enlarge the text and get the definitions of unfamiliar words, which may help your son tackle texts he’d otherwise avoid.
The Right Time
Television and video games are both easy forms of entertainment that can often feel more appealing than reading. For this reason, it can be a good idea to enforce a relaxed rule about reading each day. It doesn’t have to be strictly managed, but you can encourage your son to spend some time each day reading. Start small if your son “hates reading” — 10 minutes of enjoyment will go a lot farther in building a reading habit than an hour of forced time with a book.
Medical Issues & Reading
Medical issues can impact reading more than many parents expect. Issues like poor eyesight can make reading incredibly difficult, and learning-related conditions like dyslexia can push your son away from this activity. While many kids may not be able to tell you outright that they are struggling with issues like these, you can remain observant to spot these issues and improve your child’s reading abilities using methods provided by medical professionals.
If your son continues to struggle and resist reading despite your best efforts, a medical checkup and assessment for learning challenges may be in order. Talk to your son’s teacher and physician.
It’s not necessarily easy to raise a bookworm, but the effort is worth it.
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