Nurturing the Acorn - Encouraging a Child to Read.
Every child is different but each has the potential to fall in love with books for life. Why some do and some don’t is likely down to choices (theirs and their parents) and environments. A loving family setting, with established routines and behavioural parameters, will create and foster the perfect environment, but reality doesn’t deal such winning hands to many. Modern life also brings distractions contrary to encouraging reading as a habit. TV, smartphones and games consoles all vie for a child’s attention. The competition for a youngster’s time is weighed heavily towards the former with their visual and high-octane treats: the fast-food or sugary snack to a book’s wholesome goodness. So, kids become literate through compulsory school lessons but fail to benefit from a life of reading. I’ve heard many an adult say they haven’t read a book for years or don’t have the time to read. They get information from other sources but this feels empty to me.
Reading a book is an intellectual investment, one that requires commitment, effort and time. Our brains are wired to take the short-cut; save energy with the most efficient route. No wonder the film of the book appeals more. All the information in a film is being delivered in a pre-packaged format through the visual cortex, while music, explosions and squealing tyres sate our aural cravings. Emotions are easily tricked and played with, providing the instant fix and experience. Film and TV are a completely different artistic format, each with their own merits, but should not be considered an alternative to reading. A large part of the ‘investment’ is made by the film’s producers on your behalf, taking you on a tour through their world.
As a reader you are absorbing the language with all its subtleties, nuances and power. You are given the responsibility to interpret and visualise for yourself, create the faces, the landscape, the action. The author provides the building blocks: the reader constructs the world, gaining a sense of ownership. Of course, you need a good writer but what a beautiful thing a good book can be. It is this central involvement, interpreting and imagining, which reaps the dividend, like the stamina and strength a runner builds in their muscles through exercising. Consciously or sub-consciously, the reader learns to deconstruct a character or scene, peeling back layers, understanding at a deeper level. Scattered details are placed throughout the book but your mind pieces them together. This is a mental feat: a workout at the gym. In time, you start to understand the world in a similar 3-D manner, seeing beyond the shallow façade of a smile or a tear and into the mechanics of emotions and motivation. Any good book is a lesson in life; a guidebook to humanity.
Reading is a skill we can all learn but learning to love books takes support. It starts when we are acorns. Every parent should read to their children from the earliest of ages; every parent should lead by example, taking time to read for themselves. Children will love being read to when first introduced to books but require a push to accept the baton of reading by themselves (you’ll have no such struggles when leaving them to watch a cartoon on their own). This is where discipline comes in. No, not the naughty step, but giving structure and boundaries, getting the child used to quiet-time reading each day, with no distractions, empowering them with the self-discipline to choose well. This is, of course, easier if they have a book they enjoy and have good role models.
What all children possess is curiosity and an in-built capacity to learn. Finding what sparks and fuels that curiosity is the secret to identifying what stimulates them through reading. That is not to say, they like football, so I’ll only buy them football related books. It is at a more fundamental level: of adventure and comradery, magic and mystery, mischief and mayhem, characters and situations they can associate with. I first developed a thirst for reading with Enid Blyton’s Adventure series, tales of children left to their own devices, enjoying freedom from parents, with dangers in the countryside that never endangered. These were but a stepping stone to C S Lewis’s Narnia series. Again, children finding themselves away from parents but allowed to overcome obstacles with skills and qualities beyond their years in a marvellous unfamiliar world stretching my imagination. As a rule, parents don’t want their children sword fighting, befriending lions or mixing with witches, but through the page, in the hands of a master storyteller, that is exactly what children need. An escape: a day-dream that feels a little more real. Life's lessons are painted with allegorical and abstract strokes to be absorbed unknowingly amid a private experience. With the turning of that last page, the adventure is over, good triumphs, and the little one rolls over to dream of being in Peter or Lucy’s shoes. In the morning they wake with a desire to continue the adventure by reading the next book in the series. Finding those stepping stones is key.
By adolescence the direction is already set. Pressing your child to read will get a huff and door slam, as they march off to text a friend or play on their console. Only if the acorn has been nourished and watered appropriately will the roots and stem be strong enough to survive this vulnerable reading stage. School takes on an important role, maintaining the obligation to read while hormones and other distractions keep them occupied. I recall a mutinous mood in a class when the curriculum book felt a drag, despite the author enjoying high standing amongst the literati. The teacher had sense enough to recognise the ennui and introduced a different author and book. That author become one of my favourites and I returned to our initial book in later life when I could better appreciate its qualities. Another stepping stone on the reading-for-life journey.
I am neither a fast nor prolific reader, but I plod along, knowing what I like and gaining something from each book I read. TV entertains me, my smartphone can absorb me, but my reading books relax, entertain, absorb and teach me. How glad I am to have grown from that acorn.
Nate Wrey