by Carol Bloomfield

Created on: January 12, 2009

Best efforts to encourage a disinterested toddler to read need not be time-consuming or hard work. Opportunities lie in the everyday.

One of the simplest ways to inspire a love of reading is by doing it yourself.

All children love to imitate adults, so if they see you reading they will want to do it too. Even if a parent isn't a great reader there are always times when we can seize an opportunity; following a recipe in a cook book, reading an instruction manual, looking at a map for directions. When you collect the mail, give some to your toddler, they will be intrigued at what you've given them. To you it may be rubbish but even junk mail can hold a toddler's attention.

If your toddler is a reluctant reader, look beyond children books for inspiration. Why not try your own books, magazines and newspapers. Bright colours, the texture of the page and even the act of turning or flicking the pages are fascinating to them. One of my one year old daughter's favourite books for a while was a gardening book. It took me some time to realise her interest lay in turning the pages rather than what was actually on the page. They were paper pages rather than board pages she was used to and therefore felt and moved differently. Leaving a child to discover reading by themselves often works a treat. A child is naturally very curious and interested in everything around them. A few books left for them to play with will certainly get their juices flowing.

As with all toys a child should learn to treat a book with respect but putting books away to be treated as special toys that can only be handled with supervision can have a negative effect. I hate books to be ripped, written in, to have folded corners; my books mostly look as if I haven't read them. But it is important that children are allowed to explore books by themselves and damage is almost inevitable. They can be shown how to be gentle, but there's so much fun to be had playing with books, especially those with flaps and puzzle pieces and sound buttons. Let the kids have these in their toy box and play with them at their leisure, a bit of a rip here and there will harm nobody. This way there becomes less distinction between book and toy and the idea that either can be fun emerges.

Even in this the age of keyboards writing skills are essential and the early introduction to holding crayons and scribbling facilitates the learning of reading. The two go hand in hand. So just as a child will like to copy an adult reading, so they

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