How to develop good reading habits in children

• Reading together strengthens the child-parent connection and nurtures healthy relationships.
• Reading also reduces stress, improves memory and develops writing skills for later in life.
• In addition to helping with concentration and discipline, reading also improves cognitive and communication abilities.
• Good reading habits in children can also improve intelligence, stimulate creativity and expand the imagination.

1. Make trips to the local library: There is something wonderful about walking into a room that’s stacked wall-to-wall with books, with niches for people to hide away and escape to ‘worlds within bindings’. Making regular visits to the library with your child could be the thing that kindles a love of reading that lasts a lifetime!

2. Read together every night: By reading together every night, a child will come to associate reading with relaxation. Once you’ve finished for the evening, take some time to discuss what you’ve read together — this will improve your child’s comprehension skills and give them a better understanding of the story and its characters.

3. Create a cosy reading space: With your child’s input, set up a cosy reading space with comfortable pillows and bean bags, colourful pictures, and anything they find fun and engaging. Helping them create their own perfect little nook to read in will nurture healthy associations with books and, in turn, learning.

4. Don’t stick to one genre: Reading is an exploration of the mind and your choices should illustrate this. Exploring different genres and formats — such as fantasy and picture books — will open their minds to the endless possibilities that reading offers, making them more excited to pursue the habit.

5. Read in front of your child: Enthusiasm is infectious, so whether it’s a newspaper, magazine or something fantastic — read in front of your child. Remember, at this stage in a child’s life, you are the one they look to for cues on how to behave.

6. Be engaging: It is important to be engaging when reading with or to your child. Here at White Lodge, we encourage the teachers to be as fun and engaging as possible when reading, to use their tone of voice, intonation and make up different voices for the different characters. They might even want to use puppets, props or dress up whilst reading. All these things really help engage the child and they learn from very early on that reading isn't boring, but can actually be very fun.

7. Let them choose: During your next trip to the library or bookstore, allow your child to explore the bookshelves of an appropriate section and choose what to read. Allowing them to select a book that catches their eye makes it more likely that they’ll want to read it.