LESSON 

2-

Children’s Reading Interests

Learning Outcome:
1. build vocabulary that will help learners understanding;
2. stimulate learners to write their own literature
3. identify the different motivating forces that stimulates to learn.

Children’s reading materials, when chosen in the light of their needs and interests, serve
as one of the essential factor in their development in the various phases of growth. Good
literature brings the child into contact with great minds and various forms of experiences,
increasing his knowledge of human nature and of the expanding world around him. Literature
does not only increase the child ‘s knowledge about life and living but can also become a
springboard for creative writing, dramatics, art and music.

In order to achieve these desirable changes in the child through literature, it is necessary
to know each child-his interests, capacities, needs, and aspirations. Parents, teachers, librarians
share the responsibility of helping him find the right books and provide activities that are related
to his interests and needs.

Interest is an expression of an individual’s pattern of reaction or behavior toward himself,

his environment, his associates, and the situations he may find himself. Interest develops from
early childhood and progresses onward as a result of experience. An interest can be interpreted as
a motivating force that stimulates the individual to participate in one activity rather than in
another. 

Needs has been defined as the “desire for what are called or considered necessities”.
Needs are strong motivations that have to be met. Needs have been classified in several ways:
physical, mental, emotional, social, moral and spiritual, aesthetic, economic and recreational.
Other educator and child psychologists classify needs of children which are also basically man’s
needs as: need for material security, need for emotional security, need for intellectual security,
need to belong, to be a part of group,  need for recreation and diversion, need for aesthetic
satisfaction.

Certain basic needs are common to most people at most times. A child’s needs at first are
very strongly personal, but as he grows up and matures, they become broader and more
socialized.

1. Need for Material Security 

The child’s need of material or economic security comes first and begins in his mother’s
or father’s arms. It extends gradually to include his regular routine of eating and sleeping and
everything that gives him comfort and well-being.
 The old fairy tales were told by people who didn’t have enough to eat or to keep them
comfortable. So their stories were full of brightly burning fires, tables filled with plenty of good
food, fine clothes and splendid palaces.

2. Need for Emotional Security 

Every child feels they need to be loved and wanted.
Stories about home life are popular to children of all ages. Emotional security is a higher
kind of security than material or economic security. It has an inner and spiritual quality made up
of love, courage and happiness- the fundamental factors of security which every child should
have and build into his ideals of family life. Such stories such as Laura Ingall’s “ Little House on
the Praire and Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women “ fill this need.
 
3. Need for Intellectual Security 
The child needs to know accurately and surely. Nowadays parents and teachers realize
that the child with keen intelligence has also a wide intellectual curiosity about many things.
There are many readable, accurate, and beautifully illustrated books about birds, plants,
domestic and wild animals, stars and people, and about the applied sciences from household
gadgets to radio, television, jets and rockets that are available in book stores and libraries.

4. Need for Spiritual Security 

Spiritual security enables the individual to surmount dangers, overcome failures and even
tragedies. Spiritual security is a result of a strong religious belief. Spiritual security grows out of
a belief in God.
There are books, such as “Little Women “ and ”Little House on the Prairie” and other
books that do not refer to a specific religious groups or practices. Some old fairy tales carry the
message that decent and kind people will eventually overcome hardships and evil if they face
them with courage and perseverance.
When children read the biographies of heroes or saints of different religious beliefs, such
as St. Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, Father Damien, Florence Nightingale, and many others.
They will understand that emotional security is a driving force in the lives of men and women.
The child is moved by stories about parents’ self –sacrifice for their children, a boy’s aspiration
to obtain an education, or a country’s struggle for independence. Through reading of good books
covering experiences broader than his own a child or even adult will realize that there can be no
security for anyone unless there is a security for all.

5. The Need to Belong 

Growing out of the need for security is the need to belong and to be an accepted member
of a group. A child starts by saying “My Mommy “ or “My Daddy “ or “My Big Brother” with
great pride. These may be signs that he is beginning to identify himself with his family and then
later on will identify himself with his gang, his school, his community, his town or city, and then
his country and perhaps with other world groups.
It is important to give children books of people of other lands, races or creeds that are
honestly and appealingly presented.

6. The Need to Love and be Loved

 Every human being wants to be love and be loved. It is in his family that the child learns
his first lessons in the loves of affectionate relationships. His sense of security develops from
these family patterns. When family relationships are normal and happy, a child starts his life with
healthy attitudes. If he feels he is loved and he knows that his love is accepted, he in turn will
learn to love other people outside his family. If he feels unloved and unwanted, he is suspicious
and antagonistic towards other people. 
Stories about good family relationships are helpful to young people. 
Stories about animals defending or protecting their young are appealing.
The need to love and be loved , family affections, warm friendships, devotion to pets,
lead a child in later years to look for stories about romance. A well written story showing all the
aspects and complications of romance, its danger as well as its happiness, can provide young
people the needed guidance into life’s fundamental problem.
Fairy tales about prince and princesses help little girls to think of themselves as a princess
and little boys think of themselves as a prince. 

7. The Need to Achieve. To Do or be Someone Worthy of Respect

Children, as well as adults, have a strong desire to achieve, to do something for which
they will be respected and loved.
The child’s first heroes are his father who buys things for him and his mother who
prepares his food.
Children enjoy the tales of adventures, mystery and the career stories. Interest and
devotion to a worthy cause, untiring service to the needs of others leads children to read about
the lives of people who had worthy achievements. Biographies help the child’s need for
achievement and stir him to emulation.

8. Need for Recreation or Change.

One of the needs of the human being is rest or play as a part of the desire for change. If
we work and study hard, we need to rest or play.
Children need freedom from pressures. Some children suffer from failure in school,
family troubles, or feelings of social and physical as well as mental inferiority. They seek escape
in books. Sensational comic books, useless materials of any kind, may provide children with
temporary release from their problems. Children need literature that will take them away from
the ill- effects of the increasing social, political, economic, and religious tensions and fears of our
modern world.
Books of many kinds maybe used to meet the child’s need for healthy change. The old
fairy tales are full of heroes and heroines who accomplish difficult and sometimes impossible
tasks through their good deeds, courage and perseverance. Modern fairy tales provide laughter
and imaginative adventures that dissolve fear and tensions.

9. The Need for Aesthetic Satisfaction

The need to adorn, to make beautiful, and to enjoy beauty is another human need. Man
seeks aesthetic satisfaction in one form or another and at various degrees of taste. Man may find
satisfaction in music, dancing, painting, sculpture and literature. Aesthetic satisfaction comes to
both the adult and the child. The development of the child’s aesthetic taste depends not only
upon the material he is given and upon how it is presented.
 Good literature can help children to understand and satisfy these basic needs vicariously
if not in reality.
The reading interests of children as shown by the results of several researches give a
sequential development from one age level to the next. These developmental reading preferences
provide a scientific basis in the preparation and selection of their reading materials.

Before the age of two years:

Reading interests arise from experience that go back to early infancy. The beginning of
this early interest in books is observed in the child’s handling of books, his interests in looking at
pictures,  his poses as though he is reading and making baby sounds as he looks at the pictures,
and his desire for storytelling and being read to. Many children enjoy being read to because of
the different sounds of words they hear.

From three to six years:

At this age group children show love for factual stories, rhymes and jingles, stories with
attractive illustrations that can be discussed with an older person. Children are interested in
“what happened”, “what could happen” and fanciful stories.

Children from six to seven:

Children from six to seven do not read too well. Much of their literature is simple in
content and style and often they are read to them y adults Children want stories children  of their
own kind. They like funny stories and animal tales.

Children eight and ten:

Children between the ages eight and ten begin to read for themselves. Their interest, is in
folk and fairy tales. Along with these tales they love stories about real children. Boys and girls
have the same reading interests.

Children from eleven to twelve:

Around eleven to twelve years: Girls show more interest in stories about home life and
domestic happenings, in romance and in quiet social situations. Boys show greater interest in
vigorous adventure and aggressive action.
Bright, average and slow pupils have nearly the same interests. Bright pupils read more
international materials and non-fiction and show interest for humor and adventure.

High school age level:

The older group of children show interest in history, biography, magazine articles dealing
in social and natural environment. They enjoy reading humor and reading about hobbies, about
children of their own age group. They read stories that deal with situations that are not only
impossible but nonsensical and they also read books about travel, nature, history, description
about other lands and people.
They prefer honest, factual material in books dealing with science. The content is whst
interests them most—new information, explanations of how animals live and how things work,
how to explore and experiment rather than rhapsodies about the glories of nature and the
wonders of the subject treated in the book. 
 From his early years an individual’s interests are affected by his physical condition, his
mental and emotional status, and the social and economic environment in which he was reared.
An adult person’s interests as well as the child’s interest undergo changes. This is also
true with their needs.
Every child is unique so his needs and interests, and reading ability should be fully
understood to serve as guide in helping him select his reading materials.