Why toddler is not interested in books
Why toddler is not interested in books
Table of Contents
Reading to your lovely toddler will be something that you will just be severely fond of doing. The curious eyes and the adorable expression a toddler makes while reading or either when you are reading loudly will just be an amazing feeling for the parents. Nestling up with your child in bed and reading children’s books together or classic kid’s stories can be the favorite part of a day for the parents.
But if your toddler is not showing any kind of interest in books then you might be worried that your child would miss out or become a hater of books while growing up. Every parent wants their child to begin to love books from a very young age. The parents would want their child to be a knowledge seeker. Reading from a very young age does help in the development of a child’s imaginative and cognitive skills. But for that to happen the child has to first grow interested to read and in the process of that to happen the parents have a huge role to play.
- A child reading a story of a fox on his own.
Other focus points and reading benefits
Parents are often suggested to try out new books and new stories which will interest the toddler in a different way. But even after switching through dozens of books, it might not work out and that is not very uncommon. You might notice the child being very curious about certain other objects like a shiny key, dogs, LEDs but not just books. Parents are told to try making their toddlers just sit with them while the parents read out loudly.
But while you read if your toddler’s mind is everywhere but the story you are reading then it becomes a waste of time. Toddlers who will be primarily not interested in books can be witnessed to look in a different direction and be totally unattentive to the words being read to him or them.
When toddlers listen to the reading or try to read themselves scientifically it has been found that it has immense benefits on the child’s overall development. The words, sounds, and language combined become the building blocks of literacy skills and improves the ability to read.
The studies revealings and the timing
Besides the mind’s improvement, reading and listening to books can help the children know about the world we live in. They would mostly learn from their observing skills by perceiving everything around the child but the additional knowledge of books would take them to different places imaginatively making them learn more.
The early age of children is a high development time. But besides all these, it also improves the bond between the parents and their children if they read together. Australian scientific studies have revealed that the number of times they read in a day or week has much significance as well.
The children who were read to about 3 to 5 times a week had the same kind of ability to read as that of a child who is six months older. But those older children who the younger ones were compared to the only read for once or twice a week.
Reading to them or the toddler’s own efforts in reading also affects the imaginative and numerical skills. So parents are numerous times seen searching for answers to the question of- Why toddler is not interested in books. The correct way or techniques should be known by the parents nowadays to overcome such problems. Among other factors, one of the vital factors to catch the toddler’s interest is the timing in a day.
From movies, tv shows, and other notions many new parents have the understanding that the hour before bedtime is the right time for reading books to them. But logically and factually it is not very true.
- A child reading along with his father.
Use the child’s energy
That might work after the child has become very interested in books but not before that. Try in the morning when the toddler is not tired and sleepy. When they are fussy and exhausted it is not just difficult for the toddlers to focus, the whole process is difficult for the parents too if they are tired as well.
Most of the things involving toddlers will demand an immense amount of patience from the toddlers. At certain times of the day, you might also notice that your child is being very affectionate towards you and willing to be involved in some kind of play together. Times like these will be very important in the process of making the toddlers interested in books. The child needs to be attentive and sit with you comfortably in order to learn and exercise their learning and listening skills.
Toddlers like to copy their parents
Children mostly learn and love to learn everything from their parents. While the toddlers are growing up you will notice they would be curious about every particular task you do. They would even copy you in several ways. Suppose a word you use often they would observe it and might say that word without even understanding its meaning.
In other ways, like if after getting back home from work all you do is sit on the couch with the bag of chips and watch television, then you will notice soon that your child is considering it to be an ideal task. So by this copying mechanism, the ball is actually in your court. If you start sitting with books and enjoy them while reading then you will start noticing curiosity bubbling in the toddler.
They would come to you and ask what you are doing or try to find about what is there in the book. Indirectly they would want you to read to them and even try reading the book on their own out of sheer curiosity. They follow the people whom the toddlers are most affectionate towards and consider whatever they do is the ideal form of living or spending time.
- A child playing with a book due to lack of interest.
Find what interests your toddler
Every child would be different and just because your elder son might love stories with animals that doesn’t mean it would be the same with your young toddler. Your toddler might do other stuff like cars, planes, or any kind of vehicle, then you should get a book with pictures of them.
This has been revealed that toddlers or younger children can focus mostly for a very specific amount of time. So depending on the age of your child, the toddler would be able to maintain focus. On the other hand, your daughter might love stories, queens, fairies, and much unconventionally they might love racing cars as well. So get them the book they will find interest in. If your child shows interest with two or three minutes only then that’s a lot, do not force them too much. Let them wander about for a few minutes if they want.
But you should stay with the book reading it yourself. Then the child would come back to you eventually wanting to hear the rest of the story. But don’t forget to read it in a childish way with sounds and imitations. This combination also helps children with their development.
More involvement from parents
So in other words in need to find what are your toddlers interest in. If you just focus on the child’s playtime and get involved with the toddlers to play a different kind of games then it will be simpler for you to find what objects of our worlds interests the child. The right kind of book can be chosen only after some knowledge and research facts about your adorable toddler.
You should try to teach the child how to actually use a book. Let them open a closed book, turn its pages, then closing it, bookmarking it, identifying pages- all this very basic knowledge would also help the child’s development.
As a parent, your task would be to not get frustrated or irritated easily. You need to know that the children between one to four are not so developed yet to be able to read or write at a stretch for several minutes like older kids. So have patience and try out these tips from experts.
- A toddler learning with her grandparent from a book.
The other reasons which act as blocks in interest
The organizing and expectations
The books you buy for your child or might have been bought before should be displayed in a certain appealing way. They should be displayed with care in the child’s room or the hallway. The toddler should be able to know that it is of much importance like other objects in the house. Lack of space might lead you to pack them in a cardboard box and expect the toddler to be fond of that old shaggy box.
But that seems much illogical when you think about it. If the child doesn’t find the whole setup of books interesting how will the toddler be curious about the stories they hold. When the child shows curiosity about these rectangular-shaped paper amalgamations then you should sit with the toddler and try to teach first what the book is and what is the purpose of reading it.
You should try to assemble all the toddler’s books and display them simultaneously side by side to dedicate the rack, especially to the child. This would make the sensibility arise that these belong to the toddler and are meant to be used or read.
Many parents complain about the fact that their toddler would just not sit in one place for few minutes straight. Well, this is a common issue and definitely normal as well. Children are meant to be more active but this doesn’t suit well the reading activity parents become keen to perform daily. Some children would snuggle up with their parents and listen to a good old book being read to them but that’s a rare scenario.
Use techniques to make them multitask
For parents who have very active children who are not comfortable with sitting cuddled up and listening these parents need to understand that it’s fine for their toddlers to listen while standing or hopping. If the story interests the toddler then you have nothing else to worry about. He or she would listen to them even if they are not sitting still.
One good exercise that parents can follow is that they can let the toddler draw the main character of the book while they listen to the story simultaneously. This would work very well with most toddlers who are very active. The books of poetry or sing-along books in which the child has to actively participate should be also considered by the parents.
- A group of children listening to a story.
It might be stories for the ideal choice always
Parents often believe that children’s books would directly mean fairytales and typical fictional books of dragons and unicorns. But practically it doesn’t have to be that way. Your kid might prefer more realistic books with science and nature. So this can be an unconventional problem that is being difficult for the parents to find.
If they bring more realistic books like that of dinosaurs, science for kids, and travel magazines it might work wonders and keep your toddler flipping pages in pure astonishment. The children who love more pragmatic genres than fiction are termed, reluctant readers. But don’t go too harsh and bring books with no pictures or very few pictures.
This might again bring the same result by making the kid not interested in books. Graphic illustrated atlas and science books can keep your reluctant reader hooked and finally provide peace in your heart to watch the toddler read.
Inconsistency and not playing it smart
For excelling in anything, consistency plays a key role.This consistency needs to be enforced by the parents on themselves and emphatically on their children. If you sit with your kid with books one day and try reading a line or two. But the next day you don’t even sit with the toddler to flip through the books then it might be one of the problems for the child not being interested in the books. You need to try to make a routined reading session.
Introducing a reading time or other activities slot can be very helpful for the child when the toddler steps into school. Thus every day if you sit with the child only with books without checking your phone often then it should have some benefits. Do not force the child into sitting with you and reading by force, it won’t be much useful in the long term. Reading it yourself is the biggest part of this process.
Use the smart ways to play with the toddler’s mind. Use the curiosity of the toddler to make them fond of the ways in a book. For example, just flipping through the graphic pages and showing curiosity yourself by throwing questions like-‘ I want to know why the elephant is following that fox’.
Then you can also read it in your mind without being vocal about the words, but show all the expressions and exclaiming sounds to catch the curiosity of the child. This would most probably make the toddler get interested and try to read and find out the answers on their own.
- A mother teaching her daughter through illustrations.
Buying books and caring process
Just like sometimes the toddler goes with you to the supermarket to buy his or her toy in the same way you do it for books. Take them to a bookstore and let them choose their own book. This is a very important process because the toddler is buying it, in the mind, he or she would have that it should be read or at least explored.
Just because the excitement factor is remaining the same in terms of buying this would make the toddler more responsible towards the books. You need to also feel that understanding a story or new information is not very simple for your child. The reading on your own task is rather more difficult for them, so you need to be very patient and helping in the process.
You need to read books to them which will seem very exciting to them and sometimes the books will be of higher level to the kid’s age. But don’t hesitate because these higher levels of listening will help severely in their development of understanding words and sentences.
- Two children learning together in a fun setup.
Repeated reading
If you find at least one or two books that your toddler finds interesting then feel grateful and read the same to them again and again. This would improve their vocabulary and make sentences simpler for them to decipher.
Share reading if your toddler had already learned to read. Share the pages like the alternate pages and act very much involved and absorbed in the story even if you are not. Have honest conversations with your child and try to explain why things seem hard and how we can overcome them and why we should.
Explain why you are reading to him or her daily and why the child should read a lot. Now you have got most of the answers and reasons to your question of -Why a toddler is not interested in books.
Conclusion
If your toddler is just always running away from books and reading time then you are not the only parent. By reading about all the reasons and facts you might have already got to know that overcoming the toddler’s problem is not very difficult if you identify the reason. So the first task is to try to identify the reasons which might be acting as the agents in making your toddler uninterested in books and reading activities.
This should be also identified by the parents if they are themselves being committed to the process of helping the child gets interested and curious. Be patient and caring towards your toddler and do not lose your temper if they are not reading.
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