GETTING BOYS TO READ!



Jennifer sits quietly on the couch, reading. Josh has a book too, but it’s opened up like a teepee on the floor—it’s become a garage for his bulldozer. You’ve tried to read to him, but he gets antsy and starts wriggling. He’s just not interested. Is it really that important?

Yes it is. Reading is going to be critical for him in school and in his everyday life. Studies show that boys, on average, are 6 months to 1½ years behind girls in reading and writing at all elementary school levels. It’s not that boys aren’t as smart. It’s because their brains work differently. The language centers in a girl’s brain develop earlier and work more efficiently, but we can help boys close the gap through reading.

If he’s not interested, how do we do that? It’s hard for young boys to sit still--so while you’re reading to him, talk about the pictures, let him act out the stories, make sounds or move like the animals, planes or other things in the books.

And choose books about things that interest him, like:
• trucks, trains, planes
• real-life boys, people and places
• how things work and grow
• animals, dinosaurs, insects
• funny or action-oriented stories
• superheroes, American heroes (pioneers, founders, scientists, inventors), everyday heroes (firemen, policemen, servicemen)


You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes.

Find out more in Wired to Move: Facts and Strategies for Nurturing Boys in Early Childhood Settings, published by Gryphon House. Available at amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online and retail booksellers.
www.ruthhanfordmorhard.com.

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