By Gina Kiyuna, M.A. Special Education

Any teacher or parent of a school-age child undoubtedly knows about the importance of reading and its impact on learning in general. Encouragements to read aloud to your child on a regular basis, visit libraries and book stores, and fill your child’s world with a literature-rich environment abound. Numerous reports, articles, and books have been written correlating reading with students test scores.

In 2004, a study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) found that fewer than half of Americans 18 and over read for enjoyment. According to a New York Times article in 2007, a follow-up study by the same agency indicated that students who were consistently engaged in the act of reading for enjoyment also had higher test scores.

The message is clear. Students need to read more.

But what do you do for those who struggle with reading? For some children and adults,  the very act of reading is strenuous, and as a result, it’s rendered completely unenjoyable. It can become a vicious cycle: a child struggles with reading, so he/she reads less; reading is something that requires a lot of work, so now it is seen as work and not something fun.

The goal of simply reading more will not help. The ultimate goal should be help children want to read. To accomplish that, we need to think outside the box (or in our case, the book).

Tips to encourage a love of reading:

• Try audiobooks. This is a great option for kids (and adults) who struggle with the act of reading. Download them through iTunes or Audible, or buy the CD’s.  Buy the book, and have your child follow along or just listen to it.  Play it in the car, before going to bed, while cooking dinner, or whenever.
• Read aloud. Reading out loud to your child should not be limited to the preschool or pre-reading years. It should not end when the child learns how to read. Children of all ages benefit from hearing books read aloud to them. They need to hear the language, intonation, vocabulary, length and story elements of books that are beyond their independent reading level. Check out this website by Jim Trelease, long-time advocate of reading aloud to children.
• Think beyond paper. Some children read better on a computer screen. Try tools such as Kindle or Nook or the iBook app. Look for interactive software or websites that are related to children’s literature. Author websites often have great activities related to their stories. Another great resource is Scholastic.
• Watch the movie. While I don’t recommend this as a replacement for reading the book, I’ve often found that students who see a movie about a book are more likely to read the movie-novel. I keep a collection of movie-novels/movie-books in my class and those books are the most frequently read and most frequently in need of repair or replacement.