“He’s just not a reader.”

The claim that a child is ‘not a reader’ is one I hear all the time in my tutoring sessions.  And I’m not surprised, to be honest, especially given the texts that a lot of children are given to read in secondary school — and the other demands on their time.   And the idea of being ‘not a reader’ is often accompanied by the idea that simply ‘reading more’ will immediately and inevitably improve a child’s performance in English.

It’s not going to hurt, for sure.  Never let it be said that I would argue against reading more.  But…

I’m ‘not a runner.’  Seriously.  I mean, I can run.  I’ve run before.  A bit.  And I’ll drag my butt along the towpath (it’s flat…) every so often for the sake of my health.  If I tried to run a marathon tomorrow?  Well, I’d be on my knees before long.  And I’d be hurting.  I’d give up.  And I’d probably never run again — or never want to.

Giving a child who is ‘not a reader’ a novel to get stuck into is pretty much the same thing.  It’s saying, ‘look, I’ve signed you up for this marathon — off you go.’

Now — and we’re talking hypothetically here, just to be clear! — if I were to run regularly, starting with little runs, building up time and distance over weeks, months, then there’s a chance that, even though I’m ‘not a runner,’ I could probably — eventually — run a marathon.

Building up your child’s reading ‘muscles’ — their long-distance stamina — is pretty much the same thing.  Giving a  child who is ‘not a reader’ a pile of novels, even if you loved the same novels when you were young, is a sure-fire way to put them off for a long time.

Encouraging your child to go for a little ‘run’ — read a short story, or a short article, or an extract from something longer — every day, or every other day at first, is going to help him or her develop their reading in a way that may one day, maybe, just have them running their first marathon and loving it!

Ok, trainers on…