Motivate Any Child to Read ... By Making Connections with Your Own Life

When you're learning something or learning about something you naturally make connections with what you already know about it. The more connections you make (whether consciously or not) with something you already know and understand, the easier it is to understand the new information.

The same is true with reading. Making connections between what you're reading about and what you already know on the topic makes it easier to understand. It's a really good idea to start doing this with your child to help their reading comprehension.

Many children can read words quite easily but they don't know what they're reading about. Consequently, they aren't motivated to read. It doesn't have any real meaning for them, literally!

Making connections is easy and it's fun. All it takes is talking...

The easiest type of connections are those between someone or something in the book and someone or something in your own life.

One example: 'I made a connection. That old man reminds me of Grandad because he used to wear a hat just like that.' (connection from the picture)

Another example: 'I made a connection. When the boy ran and hid under the stairs it reminded me of one time I did the same thing. That was because...' (connection from the text)

You start.

After reading a page of a new book (it doesn't matter which of you is reading as long as you're both listening) stop and say,

'I've made a connection!'

Then explain to your child what the connection was.

After you've done this a few times, making sure you use the word 'connection', your child will be quite capable of doing the same thing. Read a page and encourage them to have a go to see if they can do it.

When they find that it's very easy they will probably start making connections every couple of minutes. You should encourage this even if it starts driving you crazy. It's natural to overuse things when you've just learned them... but don't worry, the overuse won't last.

Encourage them to share connections at the end of a page or chapter so they don't interrupt the story or text. It's important to keep sharing yours too, and don't forget your predictions.

Have fun!