How to Give Your Child a Head Start on Reading

Children and teenagers who are avid readers are more likely to succeed throughout their entire academic career. With popular books like the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games, and Twilight reaching the hands of more young adults, the statistics on kids and reading are improving greatly.

The statistics are great for parents. A 2009 study from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that after decades of declining reading trends, there has been a decisive increase among virtually every group of kids. In fact, 18-24 year olds have undergone a giant transformation from a 20 percent decline in 2002 to a 21 percent increase in 2008.

So how do you make sure that your child is on top of their reading game from the very beginning? It’s never too early to get your child started when it comes to reading, so here are some tips on giving your kid a head start.

Start Teaching Kids Early

You can start reading aloud to your child almost as soon as you bring them home from the hospital. While they aren’t able to comprehend exactly what’s happening, you’ll be bonding with them and setting up time during the day for reading, cuddling, and looking at illustrations.

Even kids are 2 or 3 years old, reading out loud to them can help them understand that the funny little markings in books actually have meaning. You can get kids that young to make letters out of Play-Doh, write in sand, or use pipe cleaners to create words. They may not understand every single action, but they will begin to learn about the concept of letters and words as a means of communication.

Confront the Fear

If kids seem scared of reading or of the confusing words, you can help them overcome that fear by teaching them that everyone can tell stories through pictures. Have kids “read” stories to you just by looking at the illustrations in a book. This will allow them to use their imagination, while also making the correlation between books and storytelling.

Choose a Personalized Story Book

Kids love to insert themselves into stories. They do this naturally, so you can help encourage this behavior with personalized story books.

My Chronicle Books has many different choices for personalized children’s books. A favorite for both boys and girls is Pirate Adventure. You can customize the pirate with your child’s name, skin tone, hair color, favorite color, initials, pirate rank, and more! Your child will read a highly engaging tale of adventure on the high seas where the crew swabs the deck, eats breakfast in the galley, uses a treasure map, and digs up buried treasure.

Another favorite is Princess: The Day in the Life of a Princess. This will allow the special little girl in your life to see herself as a princess in her very own princess book! You can customize it in a similar way to the pirate book, by incorporating the child’s name, hair color, hometown, and more. The little girl you customize the book for will see herself as the main character, she’ll read fan mail from her subjects, and she’ll ride her royal coach with her favorite horse.