Parents Urged to Foster Good Reading Habits At Home

Parents are encouraged to play a more active role in fostering good reading habits among their children.

Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, in making the call, said that literacy development must be reinforced both at school and at home to ensure the best outcomes.

“You have to do your part at home. We’re doing our part at school so, let’s work together to get our children reading so that they can reach those big [goals] that I know every parent wants for their child,” she said.

The Minister was speaking to JIS News, while participating in Read Across Jamaica Day activities at Petersfield Primary and Infant School in Westmoreland on Tuesday (May 5).

Acknowledging that many parents struggle to get children to read, Dr. Morris Dixon said the challenge is one she understands.

“I get the question asked all the time by parents, ‘how do I get my child to read more?.’ We all know, the data is very clear, that children who read well at the early ages do better in mathematics and then will perform better generally throughout their academic life,” she pointed out.

The Minister said that parents must be willing to experiment with different approaches in order to spark children’s interest in books.

She said that parents must also lead by example, noting that children are more likely to embrace reading when they see adults engaging in the activity.

“You have to show what it is that you want to see from your children. So, if you’re not reading, it’s going to be less easy for them to read,” she contended.

Minister Morris Dixon further encouraged parents to pay closer attention to their children’s interests when selecting reading material, explaining that traditional book choices may not always resonate with young readers.

“Talk to them about what it is that they want to read about because sometimes they find the books that we’ve chosen absolutely boring,” she said.

She noted the growing popularity of graphic novels and illustrated books as alternative formats that can help cultivate a love for reading among children.

“You have new types of books where you have a lot more pictorial depictions of the story; they tell a story almost like a comic. So, you have to figure out what your child likes, what topics they like, and then what format they want to read in,” she suggested.

Senator Morris Dixon told JIS News that the Ministry has been supporting literacy development in schools by timetabling reading sessions and increasing access to books for students who may not have reading materials at home.

“We’ve also gone a step further in printing books that our children can read because, for so many of our children, the only time they see books is at school,” she said, noting that providing books for students has become a critical part of the Ministry’s literacy strategy.

Reaffirming the Government’s literacy goals, she said that the Ministry is working towards ensuring that every child leaves primary school able to read proficiently.

“No child is going to leave grade six not literate; that’s what all of Jamaica has to have as a goal,” she said.