Parenting and Raising Teenagers: How can I get my 15 year old son to read books?
My mother used to be very concerned with this. At one point my brother stopped reading, when he was about 15.I remember what my dad said when my mother asked, "How can I get Andy to start reading books again?"My father simply said: "It will come back to him."And that's my answer to you: "It will come back to him."Relax a little bit. The best thing you can do as a parent is give your child room to grow and do what THEY want. IF you try to push him to read, research shows that your son will be less likely to read. HERE'S another GREAT tip:Read the book: instant influence. There is a influence process that is guaranteed to work in 7 minutes or less. I use it on my mentees all the time (in order to help them, of course).Ask you child: "Son, you don't have to, and you probably won't ever read again, but why might you want to?" Why does this question work so well? 1. It works because it gives your child autonomy. This is incredibly important. This way you want cause psychological reactance in your child.2. It works because it finds THEIR reason for doing things. People only ever do things because of their reasons. And research shows that when you try the "tell and sell" approach to influence, it actually decreases their motivation to take action. Here are the Six Questions you should ask your son:Step 1: Why might you change?Step 2: How ready are you to change — on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means “not ready at all” and 10 means “totally ready”? Step 3: Why didn’t you pick a lower number? Step 4: Imagine you’ve changed. What would the positive outcomes be? Step 5: Why are those outcomes important to you? Step 6: What’s the next step, if any?Hope that helps. If you have any questions please just send me an email. I'm happy to help.Eric EarleDirector of Mentoring, Mentor PortlandMentor Portland(503) 347 7102eric@mentorportland.com