How to get them hooked on books

By the age of seven most children – trained in phonics (c-a-t) and whole word recognition so they can spot "Danger" or "Menu" – can stumble through a passage from a book while an adult listens.

Very few children in the modern, developed world reach adulthood in a state of total illiteracy. But that's just decoding or turning the squiggles on the page, screen, paper or notice board into words. It's an essential skill to master, of course, but it is not reading.

Real Reading is what you learn to do once you've cracked the code. It's like swimming. Getting your 10-metre certificate is not the end of your swimming career. It's the beginning.

Now you can stay afloat and use a stroke or two to propel yourself along you can strike out, build up your swimming stamina and enjoy the water. It's just the same with reading. Children need to grow into strong, confident, deep-end readers – and that's where parents can do so much.

Every parent is a teacher and every teacher is a teacher of reading. And developing reading – or "Unlocking the Reader" as the title of my book has it – is a lifelong, over-arching project. It doesn't stop at age seven.

For most children that's where the process starts. And yet it is routinely sidelined by teachers and parents on the grounds that Emily or Jack can read now so s/he doesn't need any more help. No wonder so many children learn to read but never become readers.

So what can parents do? Most important of all is to remember that your TV has an off switch and to read books yourself and let your children see you doing it from babyhood. Then they get the message that reading is a grown-up activity to aspire to and that there are good, absorbing things in books.

This is particularly important for fathers and sons. A recent ChildWise survey found that 42 per cent of boys aged 11-16 never read books for pleasure. And last year's Government figures showed that nearly a tenth of 14-year-old boys have a reading age of nine.

Read to the children from birth, obviously, and share books every day to build up the sense that reading matters.

Take them to the library where there will probably be book-related activities for children – such as storytelling sessions – and the chance to rummage through and choose books to take home. Borrow for yourself while you're there. It's all part of demonstrating that reading is as natural a part of life as breathing or eating.

Once they can read independently show a real interest in their books. Talk about them. Make suggestions for further reading.

Installing a TV set in a child's bedroom discourages reading and is definitely not recommended. Difficult to remove it once you've allowed it, though, so start as you mean to carry on.

Don't worry if your child wants to read books which seem "too easy" for him or her. It still helps to build up reading stamina and we all – as adults – read at different levels according to how we feel. And never criticise your child's choices. If it's something you're really uncomfortable with then just try to coax him or her onto something else next time.

Some children don't, as they're growing up, like stories much. Encourage them to read non-fiction such as biographies of their (sporting/pop music) heroes. Magazines are useful and there are often things in newspapers to interest children.

Lots of children like reading poems because they're short and often funny. And don't forget that there is a great deal of written material on the internet, although this needs careful supervision.

"Children who can't read can't learn," remarked David Blunkett when he was Education Secretary.

Of course he was right, although that's not the only reason reading matters.

Books also bring tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction. Reading them breeds tolerance and understanding of other ways of living, places, times and cultures.

It develops concentration, self-reliance and confidence as well as building vocabulary, use of language and general knowledge.

Susan Elkin is a journalist, author and former teacher. Her book Unlocking the Reader in Every Child is published by Ransom ISBN 9781841679709 (14.99) To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepost bookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing is 2.75.

TITLES TO GET THEM READING

There's an alien in the classroom and other poems by Gervase Phinn (funny poems about school life) 6+

My Favourite Fairy Tales by Tony Ross (Witty retelling with Ross's entertaining illustrations) 5+

Saving Rafael by Leslie Wilson (teenage Romeo and Juliet set in Nazi Berlin) 12+

My sister Jodie by Jacqueline Wilson (sibling rivalry between children of boarding school staff) 9+

Keeper by Mal Peet (football thriller set in South America, first of a trilogy) 12+

Burn my Heart by Beverley Naidoo (Mau-Mau period friendship of black and white boy in Kenya) 9+