How to develop the habit of reading among children from an early age?

Like any parent, I constantly worry about my child being over exposed to television or mobile phones. Whether we like it or not things like  mobile phones are an integral part of our lives and our children get access to technology way before we did when we were young. So we cannot eliminate technology from our lives but we can regulate how and when the child gets exposed to it.

The reason I began thinking about all this is because every time I would sit to read a book to my fourteen month old, he would be least interested. He wanted to do everything except read. Whereas if I ever switched on the television before him or played some rhymes on you tube he would be glued to it, giving it his undivided attention. This got me thinking and I began searching across the Internet on how I could get my little one into the habit of reading books.

I came across this workshop that was scheduled to be held in Mumbai, hosted by The Yearling house (you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheYearlingHouse)

I found the session helpful hence decided to share some of my learning's here. The two ladies who are heading this initiative, Puja and Aparna began the session with a slide that talked about how the brain functions while watching television vis a vis  when one reads. The first two years of life are considered a critical for brain development. TV and other electronic media like watching videos on mobile phones can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents which in turn encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.

So what is it that we can do to encourage toddlers to read

• Start young- you can start reading to your child from infancy. Don't wait for them to grow up to be old enough to hold a book
• Make the activity fun for the child- voice modulations, actions and involving the child in the activity by seeking help to may be turn the page are just some ways you can engage the child while reading. At the workshop, Aparna demonstrated this very effectively using voice modulation. Every time she would change the pitch and say things like “Oh” to show an element of surprise or “Growl” to show an animal making noise, the kids would leave what they were doing and listen to her instead
• Don’t focus on finishing the story or teaching them things like moral of the story, that’s not the objective at this stage. As toddlers the focus must be on engaging them and making the whole activity of book reading both fun and interactive for the child. 
• Choose the books that are age appropriate- a book that has too many words may seem very distracting for a toddler. Select books that have one picture on each page and may be one sentence for a toddler
• Don’t get disheartened if the child does not sit with you for the whole duration of 20 minutes that you had planned for book reading. As toddlers, children want to explore anything and everything so expecting them to stay still for 20 minutes is a tall order. Even if the child sits with you for 5-7 minutes a day, you are off to a good start
• Create a routine- book reading has to be a part of the child’s daily routine. For instance if you only have time in the evenings post work, you may set a bedtime routine for your child. Just before going to bed read to your child. Also choose the time wisely, if its time for the child to go down to play in the evening and you insist of reading a book at that point, you may be fighting a losing battle.
• Choose the books carefully- a book that has lots of pictures or too many words may seem very distracting for your child. Select books that have one picture on each page and may be one sentence. What are the kind of books one should look at? Some suggestions that I received at the session were as follows 
• Biscuit dog- there is a whole series available about Biscuit the dog and the activities that he goes about. http://www.amazon.in/Biscuit-My-First-Can-Read-ebook/dp/B0078XFX8Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452061719&sr=1-1&keywords=biscuit+dog
• Gajapati Kulapati- a story about an elephant with simple illustrations and fun words that make it engaging for the child  http://www.amazon.in/Gajapati-Kulapati-Kalabaloosh-Ashok-Rajagopalan/dp/9350465116/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452062297&sr=1-2&keywords=gajapati+kulapati
• Blue hat green hat http://www.amazon.in/Green-Boynton-Board-Books-Schuster/dp/0671493205/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1452062925&sr=1-1
• They have a host of other recommendations on good reads, check out the link here https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/34325395-the-yearling-house?shelf=read
  

• Don’t restrict reading to only English books. Read to them in your mother tongue as well. For example if you talk to your child in Hindi at home, read Hindi books as well because it is easier for your child to relate to a language that he is being spoken in.
• You can use the same book in many ways. You don't always have to read only what is written in the book, you can use the illustrations provided in the book to help the child relate to something that he/she may have seen earlier during the day. So if the book shows a market, you can use that as an opportunity to talk to the child about what he/ she may have seen during there visit to the market

Most of all children learn by observing their parents/ caregiver. So if a child sees that daddy and mommy  plonk themselves in front of the television every evening, they would learn the same habits. So as parents we need to make some hard choices, ditch the television and spend some time reading to your child. 

Happy reading :)