«Help, my son refuses to read!»

Your son is clever and of course he's absolutely right. At some point you will no longer read to him. I would try it like this: Read him a story and stop at the most interesting moment. If your son really wants to know something, he will read on himself.

It's best to show your son that his worries are unfounded. Choose an exciting book together with him. Start by reading it to him for a while and then let him read short sections out loud himself. Keep his sequences short at first so that he doesn't get bored. Perhaps you can even extend the reading time and let your son stay up a little longer when you are reading together. You can also make sure that there are a few books lying around that invite him to read for himself: Many children get started with comics, Greg's diaries, Star Wars or Lego Ninjago books.

I assume that your son (at nine) is perfectly capable of reading, but doesn't want to for the aforementioned reason. The best thing to do is not to act at all, but continue to read to him and talk about his fears from time to time. Obviously, books and reading are closely linked to your togetherness when reading to him. This will certainly change at some point. But why should you speed up this process? Either he will eventually enjoy reading himself and feel as good about it as he did when you read to him - or not.

