How to raise a reader? Get them back with a story

Reading aloud may seem as simple as the alphabet, but most adults find themselves somewhere in Gee! Britain discovered earlier in March, via a Nielsen survey, that only 32% of children under 13 are read daily, compared to 41% in 2012, while only 19% of children aged 8 to 10 years benefit from this treatment.

No such study has recently been conducted in India, but in a country clinging to the screens, it would not be surprising to see that the ritual of bedtime narration is rapidly disappearing. despite studies conducted on topics of reading aloud for children: from improving cognitive development to improving language and language skills and, more importantly, strengthening parent-child relationships.

The publisher and founder of Pickle Yolk Books, Richa Jha, remembers reading to his children even before they could follow the words. "That's what made them love words. My two children, now 14 and 18 years old, clung to books very early because I read them. She sometimes continues to read an image book or novel with her 14-year-old daughter, whose memory of this love routine calls for a recovery.

But Jha, author of the award-winning picture book Dance of the Wild, now reads in rooms filled with children. The act, however, has become more difficult. "Reading aloud has unfortunately become a form of entertainment, infiltrated by the theater. Children are used to having fun and have trouble listening to a story simply read, "she says.

It is now common for schools to question whether visiting authors can complete their story with, for example, a quiz or audio-video presentation to engage students' attention.

"I had exchanges with children from three to four countries and I find that our children in India have a listening problem," says Sandhya Rao, author of several books, including My Mother's Sari and Dream Writer . "They are willing to share their thoughts and opinions, but few listeners listen to it, which I think is directly related to the fact that we do not read them out loud when they are young."

Recalling the "reading and reciting" sessions that were once part of school life, Rao thought that every school should have readings aloud, the child also as a reader. "It helps them develop an aesthetic appreciation, especially for rhythmic and musical books. It also helps them to speak with confidence and enrich their vocabulary, "she explains, citing the example of her mother-in-law, who learned Tamil while listening to stories that were read from her. 39 extracts from periodicals published in magazines.

As a child writer, Rao is often confronted with parents who want to make their children readers. She says, "I ask them two questions one after the other: do you read? Do you read aloud to your children?

Trishla Jain, whose books Sunrise, Moonrise and Om the Gnome try to give meaning and modernity to the spirituality for children, read to her children since the age of three months. Now that they are five and six years old, the reading ritual is well established. "The best thing about reading aloud is the conversations that follow. The book brings everyone together on the same page and serves as a springboard for a good dialogue between parents and children. I often ask them what they think about certain characters, their choices or twists. What would you have done differently? That's how we connect as a family and learn what really matters to us, "says Jain.

In the latest edition of the Scholastic India's Reading Report for Children and the Family (2015), 85% of the children surveyed enjoyed reading at home. For 69%, this meant a special time with parents. More than half of those aged 6 to 11 (57%), whose parents did not read to them, did not want it to stop, and 38% said they had the chance to listen to difficult books. read themselves.

Payal Kapadia, author of the new title Tween Upon A Time, considers this last point as one of the advantages of reading aloud or co-reading. "You can choose more difficult books this way; books that your children would not normally choose, "says Kapadia, who helped her daughters become familiar with nineteenth-century dialects in Mark Twain's uninterrupted adventures in Tom Sawyer, and unravel the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the Mahabharata from Samhita Arni. Left to them, these books would probably have been too difficult. The books also become a topic of conversation, allowing children to tackle difficult terrain such as death or loss. But reading in the warm and comforting space of the arms of a loved one is the guarantee of a safe return.