How to Gain the Habit of Reading to Children?

The habit of reading books is an important skill that will enable individuals to perform this action with pleasure until the end of their lives after learning to read. There is no specific age level or time period for children to acquire the habit of reading books, but introducing children who are introduced to technology at an early age to the colorful world of books has an importance that will affect their whole life. In this respect, children should be introduced to books at a very young age even when the child is in the womb, fairy tales should be read to the child through the parents during infancy, and children should be introduced to coloring books and picture books. The younger the child is introduced to books, the easier it will be for him to acquire the habit of reading when he grows up. Because books are a tool that enables children to develop their cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills, and significantly affects their language development, moral and social development.

Effective Methods for Gaining the Habit of Reading Books:

Thanks to books, children’s spiritual needs such as trust, love, belonging, play and aesthetics are met. Children’s receptive and expressive language skills will develop, and while children’s active vocabulary will expand through books, their creativity will develop, and their latent potentials such as looking at things from multiple perspectives will be revealed. Parents and teachers around the child should assume the role of being a guide in acquiring the habit of reading, which will affect the child’s life to such a degree. At home, parents should make the child feel the culture of reading with various activities that will help the child perceive reading as an enjoyable activity. In addition, the habit of reading books is not an easy situation that teachers can gain through reading hours at school due to the intensity of educational environments. Apart from the reading hours at school, it will be of great benefit for the parents to read together with their family members at certain times of the day at home, to acquire the reading habit.

Reading Time for Gaining the Habit of Reading:

While creating productive reading hours at home, technological products such as television and computers should be turned off, so that the time allocated for reading will be as productive as possible. Although the parents who are read after the reading is finished, everyone can talk about the book they read in a conversational mood. At first, the child may think that he cannot express as effectively as his parents or his older siblings, if any, but over time, he will be influenced by these conversations and will perform a more effective and more careful reading in order to realize an efficient expression, and this method will contribute to the child’s reading.

Book Selection in Gaining the Habit of Reading:

A library should be created at home within the limits of the parents’ possibilities, and the books should be those that the child acquires according to his own taste while the library is being created. Parents can make suggestions to the child about choosing a book, but the choice should never be made by the parents. The child will both taste the sense of self-confidence thanks to his own choices, and learn what kind of books he likes thanks to his own selection experiences, and in time, he will create his own book taste independently of the individuals around him. Otherwise, the child may not like the book chosen by the mother or father, and the child may find the book boring, which may cause the child to move away from the world of books and turn to areas that he considers more entertaining. In this respect, children should be free in their choice of books.

Library, Fair Visits in Gaining the Habit of Reading:

Another important issue in acquiring the habit of reading is to take the child to places such as libraries, book fairs and stationery stores, where they can acquire the book while making their choice of books. While choosing a book, the child should wander around the shelves, mingle with the colorful world of the books, touch the cover of the book whenever he wants, examine the pictures of the book, even take a short trip through the pages of the book, feel the sense of curiosity and decide on the book he wants to read by tasting that pleasure. The child can be informed about the author of the book by parents or teachers. In addition, if the author of the book is alive, trips to book fairs can be organized and the child can be introduced to the author of the book. When the child gets to know the author of the book he reads, he will absorb the book he read more or he will be willing to read different books of the author he has met, thus contributing to the development of the child’s reading.

Small Gifts for Gaining the Habit of Reading:

Another method that is effective in inculcating the habit of reading in the child is to buy a book, which is perhaps one of the most valuable gifts for the child. On the way home every evening, a book that he plans to read to the child can be bought as a gift instead of buying tools and equipment of different material value or non-useful foods. With the pleasure of receiving a gift, the child’s desire to read the book will also be strengthened.

Keeping an Agenda in Gaining the Habit of Reading:

It would also be helpful for parents to advise the child to keep a list of the books they have read. Thanks to the reading agenda acquired by the child, parents will be able to take actions such as following the child’s reading development and offering suggestions when necessary. Parents can offer small rewards that will motivate the child to increase his/her desire to read during certain time periods when the child’s reading increases. In this way, the child’s reading habit will be supported.

Creating Awareness in Gaining the Habit of Reading Books:

In addition to the roles of parents at home, teachers at school should definitely emphasize to students that reading is a part of the learning process and will last a lifetime. It should be perceived by students that the learning of individuals who do not acquire the habit of reading books will never reach a sufficient level. Filling the brain of a knowledgeable, cultured modern person; It should be understood that the way to have an objective, original and critical way of thinking is through constant reading. Basically, the habit of reading is taught in schools, which are parts of the formal education system, after reading is learned under the supervision of teachers, who are the main teachers, as well as parents. In this respect, individuals who cannot acquire reading skills in the school age period will have more difficulties in acquiring this skill in later ages. For this reason, students should be directed by teachers to gain the habit of reading with the right methods.