You want to encourage your teen to read.  Maybe you were a voracious reader, yourself, or you read very little.  Whatever the case, you are a parent, and you want to see your kids do the best in life---reading comprehension and writing are a big part of life, For starters, get them off all of the endless texting for a bit, and all of the shorthand that it entails. Proper written English and grammar is starting to be like the way algebra was to the generations before. You see twenty year olds who can barely read and write, almost just to a barely functioning level, never mind teens who aren't too far behind.

Constant texting and using the shorthand of it is causing a huge drop in reading and writing abilities. This Internet age is wonderful in many ways, for delivering the written word en masse. But unfortunately many teens text and download music and video games. They get a spectacular appreciation of a cross-section of digital music and videos, also honing their eye-hand coordination to almost military levels in playing video games, but their reading and writing skills end up considerably atrophied.

A good way to encourage your teen to develop good reading habits, irregardless of their level of comprehension, is to read and write (both going hand-in-hand). Like anything in life, the only way you get good at it is to do a constant level of reading and writing. For your teens on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, is to encourage them to write far more than just the brief, obligatory updates on these sites-with the computer 'shorthand'. Get them to write short articles and the such on posting sites like Hubpages, Helium, et al. With no charge, and an excellent listing of subjects relevant to teens, they can write many articles. In the process, they can develop good reading skills, and make a little profit at the same time.

As they write more, their reading/writing skills naturally become more developed. It benefits both parent and child, as your teens become more literate through the developing of good reading habits. Becoming more than just functionally literate, benefits your teen throughgout his/her life. It makes it much easier for them to go to college/university, and to advance through any aspect or stage of life. With much higher literacy skills, they can also get into better jobs and advance more easily. Starting with something basic, as adding far more info and updated info on their assorted sites, You can also encourage them to write short articles on a variety of subjects appealing to teens on Helium or other public posting sites, building up their literacy skills,

Going far beyond that, you can also download books on the Internet, on a wide assortment of subjects appealing to them. Pull your teen away from the computer and take them to the library, where they can do more than just text and download music, et al. Make it a family day and give them some incentive, via a nice lunch or some other incentive. There are many books in the library, fictional or elsewise, appealing to kids. Starting them reading at a young age, be it books and articles on the Internet or in print form helps them with reading and comprehension. As a parent, you are delighted that your teens are developing good literacy skills, and your kids benefit with a far more rewarding and better life, immersed in almost another reality of knowledge and learning.

Good literacy skills are developed during the formative years of youth. With so many kids graduating from High School with poor reading/writing skills, helping them to start at a young age, even pre-teen, seemingly moves them beyond the speed of light towards them developing absolutely critical literacy skills. Such skills that go a long way towards helping them in their journey into young adulthod and beyond.

There was an era when literacy was not high on the list for many people. Unfortunately, and quite sadly, in an era when words are transmitted globally in a nanosecond---the very technology that has propagated this is not helping literacy skills that much more. With constant texting back and forth, using abbreviated shorthand, good literacy skills continue to diminish. Getting your teen to write and read a lot more than the short remarks goes a long way towards them having vastly improved reading habits, which in turn benefits every aspect of their lives.

Be a good parent by encouraging them to read at even younger ages: 3-10. Children pick up learning much faster at a younger, far critical age.  This doesn't necessarily mean you playing spoken books to them in the crib.  However, getting them started at a much younger age helps them to accelerate the all-too-critical learning curve, before bad learning habits and technology takes a toll on their reading and writing abilities.  These skills are absolutely critical not just in reading, but in associated skills with it, such as analysis, some memory and recall abilities and other critical adjuncts to thinking,  learning and living.