Importance of reading newspaper

Boost Your Child's Language With A Newspaper

blog Pratiksha Gupta February 17, 2018

Importance of reading newspaper- Reading a newspaper with your child has huge payoffs. The newspaper can be used to enhance skills in reading, writing, listening, speaking, math, social studies, and science. Even critical thinking is the natural outgrowth of using a newspaper to learn.

Top ways in which Newspapers enhance your child’s language skills –

Fresh and Engaging Information: A newspaper can bring a fresh perspective to a child’s learning. Information in textbooks can be stale and not engaging enough. While on the other hand, a Children appropriate newspaper can be a great tool to provide new content to keep your child hooked!
Enrich Reading repertoire: Along with storybooks that children read regularly, reading a newspaper can help provide a non-fiction experience for your child. Reading a variety of genres in a newspaper can trigger creativity, mindfulness and critical thinking.
Become a Better Listener: For children who need support while reading, a newspaper can really boost listening skills. This can be accompanied by catchy visual information in the form of pictures. As a parent, you can chalk out a time in the day to read out what your child likes in the newspaper and encourage him to listen and understand.
Initiate Conversations: Newspaper reading is a totally different genre. Reading out or helping in reading anything the child likes can initiate conversations which can be original and rich in language. Reading newspaper can provide a great opportunity to connect with your child as it opens doors into enhanced verbal expression.
Variety of Topics: Your child can choose what he wants to read or listen. From Science to News around the world, there are various subjects to benefit from.
Oh, all the pictures!: Newspapers offer lots of photos and pictures which kids love. A picture is a worth a million words and it can tap into stimulating creativity and imagination in children.

Ideas to Use Newspapers as Learning tools

There are multiple ways in which you can use a Newspaper to build your child’s language skills.

Spot New Words – Ask your child to spot some words in the article he just read or was read to. Depending on your child’s age and language skills you can make this activity exciting. Reward if your child can tell the meaning of any new word that he has understood himself with contextual cues.
Picture Stories – This activity can be a lot of fun. You can ask your child to skim through the newspaper and find any 5 pictures which he can link up to form a story. This would rehearse many skills of receptive and expressive language.
Friendly Messages – Ask your child to pick out any phrases from the newspaper which can serve as kind and loving messages for his friends or family. Some examples – ‘You are great’, ‘Let’s hang out’ “You are kind”
Alphabet Letter Chase – For smaller children who are learning to read, playing alphabet games can be awesome. Ask your child to find words that begin with a letter. Set a timer ( say 1 minute) and see how many he can find. ( The child can circle these words with a marker, crayon or pencil)
Search the paper – This activity can be great for younger kids. Ask your child to find some items in the newspaper. Some ideas –
- Sunglasses
- Person with a red shirt
- A cup of tea/coffee
- An advert
- A house
- Earth
- An animal
- A cartoon
- Something to eat

Importance of reading newspaper

Speak up – This is a nice activity for children who have speech ( pronunciation) problems. Circle words with the letters that your child struggles with. Write them down in a place and practice speaking them loudly. Use a mirror while carrying out this activity. You can even record what your child spoke and let him hear it!
Label me – In this game which is suitable for younger children, the child can be shown various pictures in the newspaper and can be asked to give them a name.
Pointing – You can encourage your small toddler to point to the various pictures in the newspaper. Learning to point is a great skill that a child uses for communication.
I Spy – This is a popular group game which can be played even using a newspaper. Example – “I spy with my little eyes something which is round”. Throw in variety and enjoy this classic game with your child to work on listening and critical thinking skills.

There can be numerous other ways to use a newspaper for your child!

I would take this opportunity to introduce India’s only children’s newspaper to all of you – ‘My Paper’

My Paper is a monthly English newspaper which is available for yearly subscription. It is written specifically for children between 6-12 years. Paper serves as a wonderful tool to expand your child’s learning opportunities. It was started by Suraj Lokare and his team in 2012. It has more than 6K subscribers nationwide and is adding value to many children and schools. My Paper can reach anyone anywhere in India.

“The idea of creating something valuable reading material for children sparked way back in 2003 when my son started imitating me reading my morning newspaper. I realised then that there are limited options for children to read on a regular basis. Of course, there were books, magazines, comics but a regular, consistent product was missing”, says Suraj Lokare. Born out of a great need, My Paper brings carefully crafted content to your doorstep.