Children's Attitudes Toward Reading and How it Affects Literacy Development
"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift" — Kate DiCamillo, an American author of books for both children and adults.
As young children, we often begged our parents to read us a bedtime story, but what happens to us when we get older? It is strange how such a short amount of time can completely change your perspective on reading.
Increasing numbers of children are beginning to look the other way when books are mentioned, as their only experiences with books being the dreary required readings they are forced to do in school. How can we convince them that they love books and the stories told within them?
The stereotypical image of a modern child is one that does not like to read. You, like I, may be wondering, “why is that?”. Well, it is often associated with extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is behavior that is driven by external factors that motivate you to perform certain actions. Often when we are younger, we tend to love books and love reading; we admire the pictures on the page and ask our parents to read books to us. As we grow older, we used to be expected to expand our literary horizons and read more challenging books. However, this expectation is not the most influential extrinsic motivator anymore. In fact, a more crucial factor that drives children’s attitudes is the behavior of their peers. When children grow up, they find themselves imitating their peers, and many children prefer playing over sitting for hours reading. Thus, if a child’s peer does not read books, it is more likely that the child will have a more negative attitude towards reading. In turn, this affects the child’s longer-term literacy development.
As well as this, another factor that determines a child’s interest in reading is the access to books. It is true that books are not available in some parts of the world due to a plethora of reasons, one being money. Some societies cannot provide for their citizens’ basic needs, let alone build libraries. Thus, governments make it a priority to help fund the construction of more libraries and help spread the joy and benefits of reading to children everywhere.
By helping establish a positive attitude towards reading in the younger generation, literacy development will, in turn, increase. Societies, and more importantly schools, should provide opportunities for children to read books and develop literacy skills. We can also help by donating books and holding workshops to help young children discover the joy of reading books.
Works Cited
Kate DiCamillo author. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.katedicamillo.com/
"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift." (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.passiton.com/inspirational-quotes/7661-reading-should-not-be-presented-to-children-as
The relationship between young children's enjoyment of learning to read, reading attitudes, confidence and attainment. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131881.2015.1091234?src=recsys
Wang, Y. (2000, June 01). Children's Attitudes toward Reading and Their Literacy Development. Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-63365166/children-s-attitudes-toward-reading-and-their-literacy