Reading Parents Influence Children to Read

Yesterday, my sweet 12 year old was talking to me about reading.  She told me that reading was very hard for her to learn and it still takes a lot of work, even though she enjoys it and finds it valuable.

Then she thought for a while and told me that she desperately had wanted to learn to read when she was little because I am her mommy and I love to write and read all the time.  She wanted to be like me.

I'm not sure what to think of that.  I am flattered that she wanted to do something that I really enjoy, but I hope that I haven't influenced her in ways to be someone different than whom she is.

-----So I read this post to her and she smiled and laughed.  Then she told me that she wants to be an artist - not a writer - and so that is nothing like me. "Don't you know little girls want to be like their moms until they get older!" she added.

(I suppose I have learned to do a lot more arts and crafts due to her, too.  So maybe children influence their parents as well.)

Reading with a Toddler who Only Likes the Pictures (APD and the small child)

When my sweet Hailey was a toddler, she hated for me to read books to her.  Her twin brother absolutely loved it and would crawl in my lap for me to read to him as much as possible.  She, on the other hand, would crawl into my lap and put her hands on my lips to signal me to stop talking!  She just wanted to sit in my lap and look at the pictures in the books.

So I let her take the lead on these book experiences for us.  She would point to something in the book and give me that longing look of "What is that?" and I would use a one-word answer, "Train". Together we would go through the books with her pointing and either telling me or asking me what each thing was.  This was how Hailey enjoyed books for many years, and I'm sure it aided in her vocabulary development.