They need a balance of fact and fiction.
We all know that reading plays a fundamental role in children’s development – and far beyond literacy.
Being read to and reading themselves aids the aural and oral development of kids, introduces them to different words and sounds, stimulates their imagination, and helps them to develop social and communication skills by giving them a greater understanding of the world and people around them.
Childhood reading is largely associated with fictional tales, from the stories they’re read at an early age right up to the young adult phenomenon they get hooked on in their teens. While reading fiction is important for all of the aforementioned developmental reasons and can provide a sense of acceptance and escapism, it’s not the only recreational reading material kids should be exposed to.
Informational texts, or info texts, are books, articles or websites/blog posts that, as the name would suggest, provide information. They deal with fact rather than fiction and were written through the research of real places, people, events or things.
In other words, it’s a lot of what kids read in school textbooks, anyway – but embracing them in a recreational setting is important for a number of reasons.
Info texts help develop critical thinking, analytical and research skills. Kids are curious by nature, and info texts are there to answer their questions about how things work or why things are the way they are. This allows them to make real world connections beyond the places and people they see in their own day-to-day, giving them an understanding of the wider world and their place in it.
These texts can be a great way for your child to fully explore and immerse themselves in their interests while also encouraging them to read. You’d actually be surprised at how enthusiastic and focused a child can be while reading information if it’s about something they love, even if they generally aren’t big a reader.
As reading info texts at home doesn’t have to follow a curriculum, they therefore don’t have to be as challenging (or, in some cases, boring) as those at school. There’s plenty of child-friendly, informative, non-fiction reading material on just about anything and everything you can think of, be it sport, music, dance, space, fashion, dinosaurs, cars, the sea, art, nature and wildlife, cooking or baking and so on.
Lots of these teach kids about the history and industry of their favourite hobbies. Your sport-fanatic kid could learn mad facts such as how rugby balls were originally made with pig bladders, for example. Other texts offer theory and how-tos so that your child can improve their skills within these hobbies, like books that explain the tactics and rules of football, cookbooks and food blogs that offer recipes or follow-the-instructions books that teach how to draw, build or make something step-by-step.
Some info texts focus on making a particular subject more interesting or amusing to kids, like those that list weird or gross historical facts to get kids engaging with history or those that show the wonderfully wacky side of science they might not get to see in the classroom. These type of texts are also complimented through day trips or when travelling, as you’ll see when you take your little reader to a museum or historical landmark and they start regurgitating facts they hadn’t even realised they learned.
Or if your child is really, really into fiction, there’s even reading material that shows the reality behind it. Why not get them a kid-friendly biography of their favourite author, or a behind-the-scenes book documenting the making of a film or show they love?
You can also encourage them to look up more about the real creatures, people or places that have influenced their favourite works of fiction. They can learn about how animals like reptiles, birds, horses and fish have impacted the storytelling of mythological creatures like dragons, unicorns, mermaids and so on. How some of the most famous fictional villains were inspired by real-life dictators and criminals. How real places like Transylvania differ from their fictional depictions, or how fictional cities like Gotham draw comparisons to real cities they can one day visit like Chicago or New York.
Fiction and non-fiction have been feeding each other – along with the imaginations of children and adults alike – for centuries. It’s important to keep them hand-in-hand at home so that your child can develop the double skillset that arises from reading both.
