What to do if your child just doesn't like reading?

Sometimes I’m confronted with a child who doesn’t like to read.

He or she usually knows that reading is supposed to be a good thing, and it’s common too to find children who think that there may be something wrong with them if they can’t “take” to reading for whatever reason. They worry that they are “stupid” in some way, especially if others in their peer group are avid readers and they see that these students race ahead in their work in academic subjects largely because they read so easily.

It is a worry. But it is not usually very difficult to solve if the right materials are on hand.

It’s important to note first that the key to improving reading under normal conditions comes in two parts, in my experience:

1. Making sure that words which are not understood in some way are looked up in an appropriate dictionary and fully cleared so that they can be used easily and retained, and
2. Having a volume of appropriate reading material available.

The combination of volume reading and clearing up misunderstood words as the student goes along works wonders; Reading Age, as measured by many standard tests, tends to skyrocket when these two things work together, with Reading Age often leaping ahead by years in the space of a few weeks or months. Reading a lot and clearing up a lot of words is as close as you can get to a “magic bullet” in the area of reading.

But what about the child who simply doesn’t like reading?

Is this simply a case of “too many misunderstood words” leading to blankness and then disinterest?

My experience teaching English over the last 14 years suggests not; something else can come into play when a child opens a book and is confronted by a whole page of closely-written text. Even before that child has gotten into the detail of actually looking at the words, he or she has “switched off” -to them, reading equals boredom.

And that’s the key to solving reading for them: if they are bored, what are they lacking is sufficient pictures or action or mass to go with the page of written text.

I usually start to unravel this with a child in this position simply by finding a book which has pictures in it. This doesn’t mean dropping back into earlier years of reading material necessarily, as this can reinforce the child’s mistaken notion that they are somehow “behind” other students of their age; there is normally plenty of appropriate material around which makes use of pictures and even videos in this audio-visual age. It’s a case of following the interests of the child and locating something which has a good balance of pictures and significance.

This can lead into the controversial area of comics.

Look at any comic book from the 1940s to present day and you will normally find that the narrative is being conveyed largely through pictures rather than text. That’s what makes it a comic book. Word bubbles or small boxes containing explanatory notes (like “Meanwhile, back at Headquarters...”) are outweighed by large, often dynamically drawn, often colourful and detailed pictures which provide interest for the reader, young or old. Comics thus tend to engage those readers who find whole pages of text, text, text somewhat daunting.

Is it then damaging in any way to expose children to comics as a reading remedy? I can only answer from my own experience and my answer is most emphatically not: my own childhood reading began with picture books and exploded into the world of comic books, of which I still retain a collection of over 5,000 dating back to the early 1960s. Comics made me into a reader; they excited and interested me and led me into other worlds of literature and adventure and did me no harm whatsoever (though perhaps some colleagues might disagree!)

In short, it is usually the absence of pictures and “mass” associated with pages and pages of text which put some students off reading. Once pictures are supplied, the balance rights itself and reading commences with enjoyment. Given the availability of enough reading material of this kind, children in this position usually swiftly move on to other books where words predominate over pictures, and develop a love for reading at their own pace.

Grant Hudson
Head Teacher, Greenfields School

About Grant Hudson

Grant Hudson

An experienced classroom teacher and tutor and an accomplished editor, Grant Hudson also has a background as a London business consultant and is the founder of the Inner Circle Group, an internet-based club with headquarters in West Sussex but with members all over the world.

Hudson has also produced and directed an amateur whole-school theatre group for almost a decade and has created and managed many individual and group programmes addressing personal and school situations as Head Teacher of the independent Greenfields School, which included organising and managing clubs and group outings and mentoring other teachers through the UK Qualified Teaching Standards requirements, as well as personally tutoring and mentoring university entrants.

He is a published poet, and has established a school Tolkien Society. He has a Certificate of Journalism from the Australian College of Journalism and has held literary workshops and study groups in England, Australia and Canada.

About Greenfields

From the 2011 Independent Schools Inspectorate Report: Greenfields is a non-selective, non-denominational mixed school, welcoming pupils of all faiths, located in Forest Row, near East Grinstead, Sussex. It was founded in 1981 in response to parent demand for a school using the educational philosophy of L Ron Hubbard. The school aims to ensure that all pupils leave feeling enthusiastic about life, being ethical, highly productive and motivated; arm them with basic knowledge and skills for living, with more advanced knowledge and skills in their areas of personal interest; equip them with the study skills to enable them to grasp and apply the data of any subject in the future; enable them to possess a desire to achieve something positive for mankind and civilisation, and to excel and become leaders in their chosen fields. The school is distinctive in that it aims to teach pupils how to study through the use of study technology developed by L Ron Hubbard.


If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us:

• + 44 (0) 1342 822 189
• info@greenfieldsschool.com
• Greenfields School
  Priory Road
  Forest Row
  East Sussex
  RH18 5JD