My child won't read: what helps a reluctant reader

The book has been on the bedside table for three weeks, bookmark still on page four. If your child would rather do almost anything than open it, you are in good company. In the National Literacy Trust’s 2025 survey of 8 to 18-year-olds, just one in three said they enjoyed reading in their free time, and fewer than one in five read something daily (National Literacy Trust, 2025). A reluctant reader is not a rare kind of child. It is most children, some of the time.

The encouraging part is that reading for pleasure answers to small, steady changes at home far better than it answers to pressure. Here is what helps, and a few things worth quietly giving up.

Why children turn away from books

There is rarely a single reason. Reading can feel like work because at school it often is: levelled books, reading records, a comprehension question at the end. Some children find the decoding hard and tire quickly. Some simply have not met their book yet. And for many, a book is competing with things that ask nothing of them and never end.

None of that is a verdict on your child, or on you. It is where you start.

First, rule out the decoding

Before anything else, it helps to know whether your child dislikes reading or finds it hard, because the two can look identical. A child who reads slowly, guesses at words from their first letter, or is worn out after a single page may need help with the mechanics, and encouragement alone will not fix that.

Two simple checks. If they say the words seem to move or blur on the page, the British Dyslexia Association says a sight test with an optometrist is essential: it is not a sign of dyslexia, but it does need looking at (British Dyslexia Association). And if reading, writing and spelling all seem harder than they should be, talk to the school; there is more on that below.

Hand them the choice (comics count)

Children read more when the reading belongs to them. When the National Literacy Trust asked what makes children want to read, a quarter said having the freedom to choose what they read (National Literacy Trust, 2025).

It has to be a real choice. Comics, graphic novels, annuals, joke books, football magazines, the instructions for a model kit, a book you privately think is too young for them: all of it is reading. A child who reads forty pages of a comic has read forty pages. Take them to the library and let them come home with something you would never have picked. For now, the goal is a child who reaches for something to read, not a child who reads the right thing.

Find the pull to the next page

The same survey found that what most often draws children in is reading connected to a film or series they love (38%) or to their own interests and hobbies (37%) (National Literacy Trust, 2025). So begin with what they already care about: the dinosaur book, the book of the film, the footballer’s life story.

Then look for pull. A series is a reluctant reader’s best friend: once they know the characters, the second book is easier than the first, and the third easier still. Short chapters help too. A chapter that ends on a question is the strongest argument there is for reading one more, and it is the book making that argument, not you.

Keep reading aloud after they can read

Plenty of families stop reading aloud the moment a child can manage on their own. It is worth carrying on. Hearing a story read well lets a child enjoy a book above the level they could read alone, catches the words they would skip, and keeps the pleasure alive while the skill catches up.

You can share the reading as well. The British Dyslexia Association describes paired reading: your child chooses the book, you read together at their pace, and they give a signal when they want to carry on alone. If they stumble, you say the word and keep going together, and at the end of a page you talk about what might happen next. Ten minutes a day, shared rather than “heard”, is the idea (British Dyslexia Association). It works for plenty of children who are not dyslexic.

Count audiobooks as reading

Listening to a story builds the very things that make reading enjoyable: vocabulary, a feel for how stories work, the habit of wanting to know what happens. In the National Literacy Trust’s 2024 survey of children’s listening, 37.5% of the 8 to 18-year-olds asked said listening to audio had sparked their interest in reading books (National Literacy Trust, listening in 2024).

One good trick is to let them listen with the book open in front of them. Another is to start a series on audio and leave the next book lying around. Some children make the jump on their own when the next one is not out on audio yet.

Take the pressure off

The things adults do to get children reading can be the very things that put them off: reading as the price of screen time, a chart on the fridge, a sigh at the comic. Reading set as a chore tends to get done as one.

Try making it ordinary instead. Books in the car, in the bathroom, by the bed. You reading your own book where they can see you. A slightly later bedtime if the light stays on for reading. And if they abandon a book halfway, let them. Adults do it all the time.

It helps to know what the long game is, too. The Department for Education’s review of the research notes the OECD finding that enjoying reading was a stronger predictor of children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic background (DfE, 2012). That is a correlation, not a promise, but it is a good reason to protect the enjoyment first and let the rest follow.

When to ask the school for help

If you have tried the gentle things for a while and reading still seems much harder for your child than for their friends, talk to their teacher. The NHS calls speaking to the school a useful first step if you are worried about dyslexia, and suggests asking for the special educational needs coordinator, the SENCO (NHS). Dyslexia mainly affects reading, writing and spelling, and it does not affect intelligence. Our co-founder Moritz wrote about growing up with it, and about the story that changed things for him.

Put them in the story

Children lean in when they are part of the story. A character with their name, a place they know, a choice that is theirs to make: each one turns reading from something done to them into something of their own.

We built Journee around exactly that. A letter comes in the post with the child’s name on the envelope, and inside is the next chapter of a story in which they are the hero, with the people they love written in, at their age and reading level. The chapters are short and end on a cliffhanger, and a letter can be read alone or together. There is an audiobook to add for listening along (on the pricing page), and with the interactive story they choose what happens next. It will not replace the library, and it is not meant to. For some children it is the thing that makes the next page worth turning. How it works has the details.

A reluctant reader is usually a reader who has not found the way in yet. Choice, a story with pull, someone reading alongside and a little less pressure will not change things overnight, but they tend to change them. For more on reading for pleasure, see our page on helping your child love reading.