Tuesday 02 / July / 2024
Muscat: Experts and child psychologists have called for children to develop the habit of reading, now more than ever on the International Children’s Book Day.
With the ongoing tech-age and children being surrounded with electronic gadgets including video games, smart phones, Tablets, laptops and other such items, they often tend to ignore books, which are a key to their creative development.
Noora Al Akhzami, a child psychologist at the Whispers of Serenity says that the creativity and social interaction of a child suffer when they are glued to gadgets all day.
“Reading enhances creativity, when a child reads a story, the story takes the child with them in a world of adventures and it helps them with their imagination and creativity. Also when a child reads, they can connect socially and intellectually but when they don’t read some parts in their brain are not trigged, so some emotions remain untouched.
“To sum it up, being on gadgets for most parts of their day gives children autistic like traits, they suffer with communication, and their communication style deteriorates. So it’s basically them living in a bubble not knowing what’s happening around them, they suffer from social interaction, because they don’t know how to be around people.”
Global statistics show that the numbers of children reading for pleasure are on the decline and new apps and gadgets have replaced this really important hobby, and experts say that children need to start reading immediately.
“The book has been and will always be the best companion, friend and teacher. Without doubt books help stimulate a child’s development and enhance a lot of skills, such as language and communication and can also increase their attention span,” says Her Highness Dr. Sayyida Taghreed Turki Al Said, Assistant Professor at the Psychology Department, College of Education at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and the founder of My Book and Me.
She further gives some tips to parents and guardians on how to help inculcate the habit of reading among children.
“How can we get kids to love books and enjoy reading, well to energize any behavior and sustain it in an individual you need to introduce it at the early stages of his/her development by encouraging and motivating the child. Parents, Caregivers and teachers need to be role models and mentors for their kids.
“We can’t ban ourselves and our kids from using technology in its various forms and for different purposes such as the games and smart gadgets or Satellite channels on TV. On the other hand, we can control the hours and the frequency of their presence in our lives.
“Having mentioned the above point, we have to fill the child’s weekday hours with quality time and trying to engage them in reading- activities such as trips to the libraries, theatres, reading games, reading aloud to them. Adults can also try to pick books as gifts to surprise their kids or reward them for their accomplishments,” HH Al Said added.
Jane Jaffer, founder of Dar Al Atta’a ‘Let’s Read Campaign’ says, “Literacy is one of the most important foundations for a child’s success in school and in life. A child that reads is a child that succeeds.
“It is well documented that an individual’s literacy levels affect their opportunities in life for education, employment, income and wellbeing.
“As we read about character’s overcoming obstacles in life, we gain confidence in our own abilities to handle situations and we develop empathy for others. In this way, reading deepens our understanding of ourselves.”
According to Jaffer, to make children read, parents and adults need to provide them with good books, “So we all know about the importance of reading. But how can we encourage children to read? First and foremost, children need access to a full range of good books.
The Dar Al Atta’a Let’s Read Programme began in 2007 with the aim of promoting the love of reading to children in Oman.
They set up play rooms in hospitals, libraries and book corners in institutions and our volunteers run the Let’s Read Charity Book Shop in the Al Qurum Complex, and have recently launched Maktabati 2’, the second mobile library in the country.
