Top Tips to Encourage Children to Read

As a company we feel it is so important to encourage children to read and enjoy books. The 2nd of March is World Book Day and we applaud the work that they do to try and achieve this.

Reading with children is a fantastic way to laugh, learn and share an experience with them. There is also so no right or wrong way to read with your child.

When should you start reading to a child?

Realistically it is never too early to start. BookTrust state that babies can hear sounds as early as 18 weeks when they are in the womb, so you could begin before they’re even born! This will help them to recognise the sound of your voice, so when you talk or read to them as newborns, they’ll feel reassured.

Early reading also enables you to set the stage for sitting together and reading stories as they grow and develop.
Ultimately storytime should be something that helps you to bond. Therefore, children will feel comforted when read to reading themselves.

Many of us here at Price and Buckland have children, and all of us have been children 😁. Therefore we wanted to share with you some of our tried and tested top tips or personal experiences to encourage children to read.

Reading to 4 to 6 year old children

This is the usual age that children will start to learn to read at school, so it is important that they don’t feel like this is a chore. Generally, schools will teach them to read using phonics which focuses on teaching children the sound of letters rather than the names of them. This helps children to sound out words.

Tips from the team

Stephen Lightfoot (Assistant Management Accountant) “Our youngest is 5 and he is just getting into reading in his first year at school. We read to him at bedtime and ask him to read smaller words or to pick words out that he recognises as we go through the story.”

Ruby Bradley-Barnard (Buyer) “I encouraged my children to read not just from a book but from a restaurant menu, road signs, leaflets, instructions on a game. etc. Therefore they learn the value of it in day-to-day activities. Having a good routine also helps. I read with my 6 year old in bed after she has had a bath. She also likes to write in her diary about what she has read.”

Nick Buckland (Director) “Our children were always more interested in books that rhymed when they were younger. We sang and read nursery rhymes to them from a young age as we were told it would help them to recognise sounds, which in turn helped them learn to read. Also, we always preferred reading the rhyming books to them!”

Reading to 7 to 10 year old children

Over this period many children will progress from picture books to chapter books. It means they will start to use their imagination more when reading, rather than relying on the pictures.

Tips from the team

Rachel Hutsby (HR Manager) “In lockdown, my friend’s daughter (7 or 8 at the time) made a of video of herself reading her favourite book. Her parents posted the video on social media and she got so much praise and encouragement from friends and family. She was so proud of herself that she went on to do a whole series!”

Jo-Ann Roadley (Customer Service Manager) “I still read every Saturday night with my 10 year old granddaughter.  She likes to take on a character role in the book so every time that character “speaks”, she reads that bit and I do the narrative and the other characters.  Sometimes we swap and I am one of the characters. That way she puts the full voice on, gets into the character’s traits and really participates with the book.”

Stephen Lightfoot (Assistant Management Accountant) “Our eldest is about to turn 9 and is reading chapter books now, however we still read a chapter or two to her first and then leave her to read to herself. We then ask her afterwards, or the following night to fill us in on the bits she read. We think this encourages her to engage more with the story knowing she has to retell it to us later. Also, as she transitioned from picture books to chapter books it became all about promoting imagination and picturing the characters and sets in her head as if she was watching it on screen.”

Dianne Nadal (After Sales Department) “Once you have read the story together, ask them about how a certain character may feel or what would they do? This helps to increase their engagement with the book and works particularly well if the book is part of a series featuring the same characters.”

Reading to 11 to 16 year old children

Many children of this age won’t necessarily want to be read to anymore, however there are still ways in which you can encourage them to enjoy books.

Megan North (Account Manager) “I felt when I was younger that reading a book that had been read to me before, or a book that I enjoyed the story/film of helped as I was already familiar with the narrative. This helped me know what words would be used next and assisted me to not just read the words but truly understand what they meant.”

Laura Abson (Digital Marketing Manager) “My parents would buy me books that were part of a series such as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and The Worst Witch. This meant I was always really engaged with the characters and felt I knew them. Reading one of the books always left me wanting more and I was bought books for special occasions such as birthdays and Christmases but also if I had done something good. Therefore I always associated books with a reward to really be appreciated.”

We hope our tips on how to encourage children to read have been useful. There are some huge book fans here at Price and Buckland and we hope that all children are able to find the love for reading that we have.