EdTalk | How to trick your kids into reading

In my time as a literacy specialist there is one recurring parental struggle that I’ve seen more than any other: how can I get my kid to read for pleasure?

That simple goal can feel like an uphill battle nowadays when books must compete with increasingly captivating video games, spectacular superhero movies, and expertly marketed toy fads. It seems like the humble print book hardly has a chance, but we know the value of reading, so, let’s get tricky and start scheming.

None of the following are sure-fire ways to get your kids reading. Rather, they are a series of increasingly zany ideas to fling at the wall to see what sticks. They’ve come from my own experiences as a literacy specialist and as a non-reader until the age of about 15. My refusal to pick up a book drove my academic parents insane. So, if anything here doesn’t work, move on and try something else.

The most important way to encourage a love of books and literacy is to read to your child. I cannot stress this enough, and there is a growing body of research that backs me up. This is a strategy that is key in the younger years. We’re going focus on older kids here, dividing our strategies up into three broad types: finding the right book, incentives, and other tricky moves.

Finding the right book

When trying to encourage reading your first step might be to bring your kid to a library or book store and allow them to pick out whatever they want. For some kids, having that control will already make reading seem more exciting than assigned reading tasks. In the unlikely event that this strategy alone works, congratulations! For almost everyone else, let’s move on to directing your kid towards specific books that might entice them.