DS likes to be read to, but won't look at books by himself -- anyone else?

[LuckyMommaToo]

He's always liked being read to, and we even do chapter books now (as an aside -- Stuart Little is a lot weirder than I remember!). But he has NEVER looked at books by himself. He even has five comic books, and he won't look at those either. He says, "I can't read the words."

I guess I'm worried that he won't be a reader, but that's silly, right? He's not very visual, in that he doesn't really enjoy art and rarely does it. Maybe that's related?

-e

[heket]

Am I wrong in that your son will soon be 5?

My dd will be 5 next month and she started looking at books to pretend to read to her younger brother. She recognizes some basic words, but is nowhere near reading yet.

Whatever his age, keep reading to him and let him see you reading for enjoyment. Try to provide a variety of reading materials, both fiction and non-fiction. It really doesn't matter what he reads so long as he reads something that engages him. There's plenty of time to get him to try other genres as he gets older. If you deny his pleasure reading, he'll surely start to hate reading and see is at simply a chore.

[4evermom]

Ds thought it was pointless to look at books when he couldn't read, too. He will look through comics now, at almost 7 and almost reading. He'll make educated guesses about the words based on the sounds the letters make and the pictures.

[DaughterOfKali]

I would try to find books with fabulous illustrations (colorful, detailed).

My son went through a period where he didn't want to look at books (I think he was 3).

Some kids may feel pressure just by looking at a book. The child may feel that the adult is trying push them to read, etc. (even if that isn't the adults intention).
One thing that helped is taking my son to story times. He couldn't sit for very long but he would glance over when the reader showed the pictures to the kids.

[kamilla626]

Dd was the same way. Even now, I know that she knows how to read, but she dislikes reading on her own.

I wouldn't worry too much. Heck, I don't enjoy reading anything that has a lot of big words that I'm not familiar with!

[Thalia the Muse]

for years, my daughter only wanted to be read to, and wouldn't look at books on her own. She didn't hate books -- she's just really social! Once she became a really fluent reader, she started holing up with a book pretty frequently. She still likes me to read to her, though.

One thing that I think helped is giving her the option of reading for a while before lights out at night. You can go to sleep, or you can read for 20 minutes -- and she almost always chose reading, and then she got hooked.

[peachweenie]

My 5 year old son is not interested in reading at all. He wants ME to read to him, that's, apparently, MY job! I read to him every night before bedtime - maybe he's afraid that closeness will go away?? He's going to a non-academic kindergarten, so this is fine for now. He knows all his letters and the sounds they make, but he won't put forth the effort to read. He does, however, love art and drawing. I'm not going to force him to read before he's ready - I think that would make him much more stubborn!

[milehighmonkeys]

Does he look at the book that's being read to him or is it where he can see the pictures and words?