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Ask the Expert
Expert: Kathleen C. Perencevich
Question 1:
My son is 8 years old, and he hates to read. He is also not a very good reader, and isn't doing well in language arts in his school. How do I know if he has a reading problem or if he is just being lazy when it comes to reading?
Answer:
First, if you suspect that your son has a reading disability, you should consult the reading specialist at school and ask for testing to be done to rule out a serious reading difficulty.
If however, you believe your son has a motivational problem, there are many ways that you can begin to spark his interest in reading. A few ways include helping your son build confidence about reading, connecting his world with books, and giving him opportunities to make choices about his reading. Just as when a child learns how to participate in sports, reading takes lots of practice until it actually becomes “fun”.
Confidence: Your son must raise his level of confidence with reading to increase his motivation. The more success he has in reading, the more he will want to read. Begin with reading books that are on or slightly below his current reading level to help him gain fluency. Have him practice reading books with predictable rhyming patterns (e.g., Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs and other Ughs by Anthony Fredericks, or One Smug Slug, by Pamela Duncan Edwards). Have your son practice reading these types of books with expression many times so that he will gain some fluency with the text.
He can also practice reading with a partner. Often in school, children are asked to read an unfamiliar text alone and aloud. Students who struggle with reading are typically discouraged by this practice and feel stigmatized. To prevent this, help your son become expert at reading one book expressively and then he can choose an audience to perform his reading abilities, such as a kindergarten class or a group of family members. Other ways to help build reading confidence include praising his successes, letting him know that errors are opportunities for learning, and helping him realize that his reading is getting better and better with practice and effort.
Connections: One way to help motivate your son to read is to link his world with books. Have your son observe the world around him using his senses of sight, hearing, touch, or smell, and by recording his experiences through writing, drawing, or photography. These real-world connections can range from broad (e.g., woodland walk) to specific (e.g., carefully drawing and labeling the parts of a cricket, leaf, or bird feather). These connections are so important because they will help to pique his curiosities and foster questioning, which create opportunities for reading to occur. Establishing a purpose for reading that is personally significant is essential for motivation.
Importantly, you can help turn the energy aroused by a real world connection into books. For example, you could go on a bird watch with your son to serve as a tangible activity to launch reading about the survival of birds. Then, you can connect this activity with narrative books (e.g., Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, Who Really Killed Cock Robin by Jean Craighead George, or Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech.) Also, boys tend to enjoy non-fiction books, so you could help him to learn about birds by studying one type of bird in depth.
Choice: It is so important that your son choose books that interest him. Find out what interests him both in and out of school and help him get books about these topics. If he cannot make choices in school, which is often the case, you can provide them at home. Let him decide what he’d like to read about, what pages he’d like to read expressively, and how he can share his knowledge from reading. For example, he could form a book club or solve a scientific problem through reading.
Most importantly, your son needs your help in learning how to make reading a daily habit so that someday, without adult assistance, he will begin to choose to read because he wants to. The key is to figure out why your son might like to read and give him the opportunities to fulfill his motivations. Good luck.
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