Years ago, Johnny Carson, a super-talented entertainer was the long-time host of the Tonight Show. One of his routines involved playing Carnac, the Magnificent – a psychic who picked up a sealed envelope and divined the answer to the question inside. In one episode, Carnac holds the envelope to his head and says “Cyclone.” He then tears open the envelop and reads the question: “What do you call the clone of a guy named Cy?”
If Carnac was to do one of his “divinations” around the topic of reading, he would say “You can’t.” The question inside the envelope would be “How can I get my child to love reading?”
The problem lies in the failure rate most children experience during reading. If a child’s error rate is higher than 3 to 5 %, sustained nightly reading assignments are, to a greater or less degree, a source of misery.
Here’s why. If an error occurs, the child becomes aware of it only by recognizing that the text does not make sense. But the child does not know where the error occurred. So the only possibility for correction is to go back, hope it is back far enough, and start re-reading. There is no guarantee that this will work, but it is a reasonable “strategy” under the circumstances.
If this sort of pattern occurs once or twice in a ten minute period, things are manageable. But if it happens several times on a page, it is simply unbearable. The feeling that wells up is: “Why bother? All I ever do is read and then re-read and then re-read. Let me just get through this.”
The solution is to ensure that the child is given texts he or she can read without errors. That makes reading enjoyable, and in that situation children generally will do their nightly reading assignments without (much) complaint and their reading skills progress naturally.
Here are five tips to get your children to love reading by ensuring that they have a (mostly) error-free reading experience:
- Whenever possible, for independent reading, have your child read only books that he or she can do almost perfectly. Do not use books that evoke any noticeable level of error. (Of course, if your child is a great reader, you do not have to be concerned about this. But then you would not be among those asking: How can I get my child to read effectively?)
- For more difficult material, select books that evoke no more than about a 10% error rate in your child. Then plan to read that book with your child 3 to 4 sessions a week.
- For the sessions, read aloud a segment from that book. Then have your child re-read the same segment. (A segment is usually a paragraph.) If you are like most parents, your reaction to this is likely to be, “But, I’m telling him everything. How will he learn to do it on his own?” Remarkably, this technique, known under a variety of terms such as repeated reading or impress reading, is very effective. Humans do best when they have opportunities for pattern perception. Your modelling of smooth, correct reading serves to provide a range of patterns (in decoding, in speed, in tone) that your child can take in and build upon.
- After the segments for a session have been read (jointly by you and your child), have your child re-read all of them aloud in one steady flow. Depending on your child’s skill, this might be anywhere from 2 to 10 segments. Competence requires accurate, sustained reading. By re-reading, in a continuous manner, segments he or she has already read effectively, you are laying a major cornerstone in the foundation of competence.
- Your goal is to achieve a session lasting about 30 minutes. But you need to start at a level your child can manage. At the outset, that might be 10 or 15 minutes. Each week build that up steadily by 2 to 3 minutes. Within a month or two, you will reach your goal.
Behavioral scientists have shown that it takes about a month of regular activity to change or establish a habit. So expect that the new routine may present some challenges —not least of which will be your child’s moans and groans about “Oh, no, not reading again.” Don’t let comments like this upset you and don’t try to “reason” your child out of them. Calmly maintain the new way as if all will be fine. Within 4 to 6 weeks, you and your child are likely to see clear signs of progress.
Like a weight-watcher seeing the numbers on the scale go down, that progress is a marvellous reinforcement. After experiencing this positive reinforcement, your child might just become one of those kids who loves to read.
