3 Reasons Children Say They Don’t Enjoy Reading

Adults need to motivate, model, and equip young readers

In earlier posts I highlighted data and collated a few trusted media sources that demonstrate children are falling out of love with reading.

Today, I’m changing tack to look at some possible causes of this trend, in particular considering 3 reasons that children give for not enjoying reading.¹

Reason 1: Schools discourage by punishing them for not meeting quotas

I had a rocky relationship with the education system.

I went to good schools with some great teachers, but only after fudging my way through tedious years of school and university did I discover a motivation to work hard in my twenties: money. I felt that grades were arbitrary letters or numbers that had no real-world value.

Reading quotas and assignments delivered to whole classes carry the risk of turning a potential joy (reading) into a chore by associating the act of reading with study and grades. Grades (and even punishment) might motivate some children, but may have the opposite effect on others.

Of course, I recognise that schools and teachers have an unenviable burden: to teach an increasing number of children, with fewer staff and resources, all while quantifying their ever-improving results.

Reason 2: The book recommendations aren’t interesting

I’m particularly interested in how to offer book recommendations that work for children — motivating, but also challenging them.

My mum’s wide range of children’s books and her interest in drawing out what I enjoyed was critical in fostering my love for reading. But how many adults today have the time, knowledge, and skill to draw out a love of reading in the children in their care?

Michael Rosen goes one step further, suggesting that rather than just presenting children with recommendations, we need to equip children with the life skill of discovering books for themselves:

Browsing and choosing teaches us about how reading can be part of our lives, how it can matter. Browsing and choosing involves special kinds of reading: scanning, selecting, picking up clues and cues. We only find out if it works when we go with our choices and start to read the rest. If it 'fails' we try other ways.

Trial and error without fear of failure - it's a crucial part of reading and education as a whole.²

Reason 3: Their parents set a bad example by being on their phones

Gulp. Children can be frustratingly observant little critters.

Sure, it might be amusing and/or mortifying to hear a child cheerfully swear on the train because they heard the word used at home. But while adults swearing at home exemplifies ‘do as I say, not as I do’, smartphone usage in front of kids is the ultimate signal that reading books — or for that matter being present for just about anything in the real-world — is not as interesting as what’s on your phone.

If we can’t learn self-control and model an enjoyment of reading for our children’s sake, why expect them to be any different?

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A theme that jumps out in these responses from children is the influence that adults (parents and teachers) have on a child’s motivation to read. It’s clear that without careful, attentive guidance, children can feel demotivated to read, pick up signals that reading is unimportant or unenjoyable, and might learn to equate reading with a chore, or homework.

Michael Rosen again to close:

The big irony of recent educational change is that parents who, at home, can use 'progressive' non-cramming educational methods of: cooperation, invention, discussion, children doing planning, investigation, discovery, interpretation bestow huge advantages on their children!

I’ll be covering more on the advantage of reading enjoyment in another post. Please do comment or reply if you’d like to.

Thanks for reading,
Graham

1. National Literacy Trust report, 2024

2. https://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/more-thoughts-on-reading-for-pleasure.html