Easy Ways to Build Your Child’s Love of Reading Every Day

Raising Kids Who Read isn’t only about the mechanics of reading — or even the key skills of decoding, comprehension, and motivation. It’s a down-to-earth guide to fostering a larger love of reading — of knowledge, really — and all that goes with it, like making “reader” a part of a child’s self concept, whether that child is in pre- or high school. I spoke with author and University of Virginia psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham to see if busy parents can possibly be doing enough.

There’s considerable guilt and anxiety in a lot of two-working-parent households (like mine) around the amount of time we can dedicate to reading with our kids. Is there a number? Can we do this in 20 minutes a day?

The big thing I emphasize throughout the book is that there isn’t one thing — or even four things — that you do that take X number of minutes. It’s a million little decisions you make every day. It’s a sensibility, not a tiger-parenting approach. The parents who are busting out flashcards at age 3 may have kids who know their letters, but they may or may not grow into kids who love reading. It’s about the stuff you’re already doing.

Really? What are some things that we’re already doing?

Let’s start young. One of the best things you can do to prepare for reading instruction is to make sure that [kids] can hear individual speech sounds. That’s much more important than teaching letters. It’s true that kids who know their letters learn to read more quickly — but it’s not causal, it associative. Parents who teach letters are doing other things that are more important.

Hearing speech sounds, that’s very important for reading. And you teach it indirectly. Adults who never learned how to read can still hear individual syllables. They know that “Czechoslovakia” has a lot of syllables, “doggie” has two, and “cat” has one. But they can’t hear that “cat” is composed of three separate speech sounds. That’s hard for kids.

You can teach speech sounds through wordplay, rhyming, alliteration. Speech sounds games with kids have been shown to help. If you’re reading aloud to kids anyway, choose books that are rich in rhyming, like Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss.

My kids love to play rhyming games. I didn’t realize that counted!

One of the things you’re showing your child, when you play those games, is that language is interesting in our family.

I grew up with a dictionary in the kitchen — it was about language and about knowledge. It made it convenient. My parent would always look stuff up. That’s something that only takes 15 seconds, but when it’s repeated, children get it.

It’s also great to see parents not magically knowing everything. That they, too, have to seek out information.

We’re not omniscient.

In preschool, I see kids who are already reading and also kids who are nowhere near interested in their ABCs. Do we need to worry about that gap?

No. At age 3, 4, you don’t need to worry about it. There are some schools where kids don’t learn to read until quite late, until 7 or 8. In Britain, they’re starting kids at age 5. There’s enormous variation. The difference goes away by age 11.

How do parents create the right motivation and attitude about reading? I feel like it must be personal for each child. 

There are lots of different ways that motivation can pose a challenge for parents. You can start by getting children to think of themselves as readers, building positive reading attitudes and having positive associations. If you’re reading with your child at night, be sure it’s associated with really warm feelings. If you’re feeling that it’s a chore, you’re not communicating [warm feelings] to your child in any way.

The funny thing is, reading motivation for most kids is not a problem at all when they’re young. Most kids have a positive attitude toward reading. It’s later on…

You mean high school?

It’s the middle years, once children have learned to decode and the fizz has worn out of that, they’re not excited to decode anymore.

The principle idea is recognizing that reading is a choice. If you’re talking about leisure reading, they can chose to do something else. Reading has to be the most appealing thing available. That’s a tall order.

That is a tall order. What can we do?

I suggest parents think about a child’s environment and make sure that reading is the most interesting thing they can do.

• Put books in places where kids get bored. For young children, the car is a great place.

• Don’t put screens where children get bored. There are lots of studies where they’ve found this is a bad idea.

• If it’s an older child, a teen, the places where they get bored are different. About 80% of teens have smartphones. You can make sure there’s an eReader on it, so they’re always carrying a book with them. Point out to your children that you don’t have to read for a long block of time, you can read in line while you’re waiting. If there’s no one to text, read!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.