A report today, commissioned for BookTime, a branch of the independent literacy charity Booktrust, reports some interesting findings regarding children’s leisure time and reading habits.

 

• One in every 20 family homes in Britain today has fewer than ten books.
• Yet 96% of all children surveyed say that they enjoy reading.
• 60% of children like to share a book with their parents/carers as it shows that they like to spend time with them.
• 3% of parents and carers never or rarely read with their children. For those who do, just one in three read with their children on a daily basis.
• 56% of all parents and carers (and almost half of all parents of 4-5 year olds [48%]) say their child spends more time facing a screen, playing computer games and watching DVDs rather than reading.
• Parents and carers of boys are twice as likely not to read with them compared to those who have girls.
• Children were asked ‘what stops you reading’ and they reported watching TV (54%) and playing on the computer or video games (41%).

 

So kids love reading, they love being read to yet half of them are choosing screen based ‘mind numing’ activities rather than reading. As parents we need to make reading a priority. Making time for reading demonstrates the importance we place on it and also increases literacy skills. When one in 5 children leave primary/elementary school without meeting the required standards in literacy we cannot leave this until it is too late. Turn off the TV and pick up a book or use screen time as educational time and introduce them to ebooks!

 

The independent research was conducted on behalf of Booktime and Booked Up. 1,772 UK parents of primary school aged children and 1,318 children aged 5-12 years took part in the research.