Your child has started reading on their own, and it feels like a finish line. The bedtime story quietly stops. Often that is exactly when reading starts to slip.
We asked Shalini Bansal about this on our series, The Reading Lens. She is an early childhood education specialist, a storyteller, and the founder of The Magic Tree, a parent-child learning centre in Noida. Her answer was simple: learning to read does not mean a child has outgrown being read to.
Why does reading aloud still matter after age 7?
Shalini sees the same pattern with many families. Once a child can read, the expectation changes, from parents and from school: now you can read on your own, so why don't you pick up a book yourself? But for a 7, 8 or 9-year-old, being read to is often less about the words and more about the time with you. A child who feels secure, and not anxious, learns better. And that time together leads to conversation. Maybe the child is holding something back about school, and a story is how it comes out.
Why do so many children go off books at chapter books?
Shalini calls this the biggest dip she sees. A child goes from beautiful illustrations and a little text to pages of small print almost overnight, and the pictures that excited them are gone. Her advice is to make the step smaller and gentler: a short chapter book that still has some illustrations and not too much text, with the bedtime read-aloud carrying on alongside. Reading has to stay a pleasurable activity first.
What to try this week
Keep one short read-aloud going, even after your child reads alone. Ten minutes at bedtime is enough.
Take your child book shopping and let them pick. Choosing gives them confidence.
Set up a small book corner at home, even five or ten books, within your child's reach.
If there is no book to hand, tell a story from your own childhood or from the Panchatantra, or make one up. Reading a recipe together counts too.
Some read-aloud favourites Shalini mentioned: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Book with No Pictures, Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, Rooster Raga and Gajapati Kulapati.
