I Can't Read

“John does not like reading. I don’t understand why. My husband and I are avid readers. We have read to our child every night since he was little. We surround him with books in our home, yet he has shown no interest in reading at all. In fact, he refuses to read.” Mrs A laments in exasperation.

While Mrs A pulls her hair over Junior’s reluctance to read, Mr B, another parent, is cool as a cucumber about the matter. “Lily will pick up reading sooner or later. I didn’t like reading till I was older,” Mr B opines.

You may have met parents like Mrs A and Mr B. As parents, we would certainly like to find out the reason underlying the disinterest in reading so that we can nip the issue in the bud.

Some helpful questions to ask are: Is the vocabulary too hard? The text structure too complex? The story theme too deep? The topic uninteresting? The amount of words too overwhelming?

Perhaps, for some of us, we may have this nagging suspicion: Could the reading avoidance be due to my child's inability to read? The mere consideration of this can be distressing to any parent.

But fret not. The good news is that research has shown that it is possible for all children (adults included) to learn to read. The key question is HOW. How can my child learn to read?

Before we dive into the How, we will take a look at what reading is in the next post and how understanding that will give us insight into our kids' reading struggles.