Enter the Magic Kingdom of Reading

The fluttering sound of the ruffled pages of a book, the characters dancing and jumping on the pages, as my fingers flip through the pages and land on the next adventurous line.

“Superman and the Flash zoomed back to Metropolis…” said Aria eagerly wanting to read the whole book.

Why is reading important

Reading is a highly enriching activity for kids of all ages. Not only does it start from a young age, but also during prenatal times. Reading helps create a unique bond between parents and kids when kids are read bed time stories or just read to.

In an article, ‘Reading Benefits for Kids and Teens,’ it said in a study they conducted in 2014, it was discovered that “reading exerts a positive effect on the developing brain” of children – even for those little ones who can’t read yet. 

I definitely agree to that since I can see the first hand effects of reading. I used to be an avid reader, but after kids, my reading passion has died down mainly due to time. However, I made sure to pass this passion onto my kids.

I felt reading has helped my kids in many ways such as reading books on becoming a big brother or books on potty training. I would read stories to Aarav, during my pregnancy with the twins, of how the big brother would take care of his sister and help his mom. Surprisingly, when the time came, he actually felt like he was the character in the book and would act similar to that character. It also created this bond between me and him and gave him the assurance that even if I am busy with the twins, I am still there for him.

There a lot of benefits to reading. As kids, they develop stronger relationship with their parents and they learn important language, vocabulary and literacy skill early on. As older kids and teens, they also develop strong writing, vocabulary skills and it helps them understand more complex ideas. Reading also helps them expand their knowledge in all different subjects.

How to get kids to read

Yes, reading is very crucial, you can say, but key is how to get kids to read?

1. Get your child a library card. Surprisingly, it gives them this sense of ownership and makes them feel like they own a card just like mom and dad owns a credit card.
2. Obviously, starting young is the key. However, it is not too late to start at any age.
3. Initially, buy or rent books which interests them such as Dr.Sues, Harry Potter, Babysitters club or Goosebumps and many more. Have them read all the books of that series. Once they are hooked onto reading, they will not mind reading other books.
4. Set aside your reading time with them. It can be bed time or reading at the park or after dinner or any time. By doing this, you are telling them that you are taking time out from your busy schedule to spend time with your child and they have your undivided attention. If you are busy, you can have your older child read to the younger one thus, it helps create a sibling bond.
5. Last but not least attempt to get them to read is to give them rewards. Some kids just do not like reading no matter what tricks you implement to get them to read. Therefore, by announcing a reward, small or big, they are for sure to read. Eventually, they will start reading as a hobby and not for the reward.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr.Suess

Paper or Electronic books?

All right, so we have discussed the benefits of reading and how to get our kids to read, but in today’s digital age, it is hard to judge if paper-based content is better or electronic-based content is better.

I mean it is easy to say electronic-based content such as E-books, Kindle, Lexia and various reading apps are way better since it is fairly a new process of reading. Even schools are adopting electronic apps to help kids read better. Lot of the school libraries are dwindling because schools do not have the space to keep so many books and since everything is online it makes it easier to access so many books.

I personally have a biased towards paper since I grew up with paper books. The idea of holding and reading something, touching the pages while flipping them and getting lost in the story is the connection I get with paper books. Therefore, I encourage my kids to use more paper books.

However, you can decide which route to go for your kids – paper or electronics.

Paper Books:

Pros	Cons
Better for memory retention and focus in our brain, according to neuroscience research.	Kids get bored easily especially when they need continuous interaction of some sort
Less tiring and strained eyes from having to not stare at the screen	They are hard to take for traveling since you can only take 1 or 2 books.
It is an activity which can become a family ritual and engages the parents and kids equally. Parents are more inclined to share stories with kids while reading.	Can cost quite a bit.
They give more of a sensory experience like turning the pages, holding the book, flipping through pages where you physically see how much you have left.	To store all this books may be an issue.

E-books:

Pros	Cons
Cost is very minimal and portable.	There is less interaction between kids and parents. E-books become more of an independent activity. (These interaction is a key factor in helping a child grow.)
Kids have lot of interactive features to learn from such as an audio option with the book, so the book can be read to kids. Plus, there are different games or features that help explain the book in different ways.	These features can be a distraction since it removes focus from the main part which is reading. Kids are more tempted to other distractions like games or ads.
There is access to thousands of books that you can search up. Also, navigating through books is very easy to do.	Research shows our mind takes in less information from e-book than paper. A lot of times, kids will tend to skim through the material instead of actually reading the material.
Great for reading on the go…you can have tons of books to read from your app eg. Kindle, PBS collection of reading games, The Reading machine, The International Children’s Digital Library	Kids do not have so much patience to sit through and read since online everything is very fast paced and readily available.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, they used MRI scanning to look at the functional brain connectivity patterns between paper books and e-books. The result was that brain connectivity is increased by the time children spend reading and decreased by the length of exposure to screen-based media.

However, there is alternative research which says that ‘Kids are putting together letters to make words, and words to make sentences which means kids are reading more now than they were a decade ago.’ This means that through e-books, kids are overcoming there reading problems.

Therefore, it is hard to judge which option is better; however, I feel as parents we should encourage both ways and make sure that our kids are not solely dependent on one method. Paper should be our primary focus while e-books should be secondary.

As parents, our duty is to make reading a fun, exciting and enjoyable activity which kids look forward to doing. Just like any sport, it takes time for kids to develop interest, but once they know the art, there is no turning back.