News
New survey suggests children need more support from parents and teachers to develop a love of reading
19 Oct 2012
Children’s attention spans are shorter, and demands on their attention are much greater than ever before, a new report from Pearson shows, suggesting they need more support from parents and teachers in developing a love of reading.
More than 7 out of 10 teachers (77%) say that children’s attention spans are shorter than ever before in the classroom on starting secondary school. Ninety-seven per cent of teachers said parents could do more to encourage reading for pleasure at home.
The survey, commissioned by leading learning company Pearson, asked 400 English teachers and 2000 parents of pre and primary aged children from across the UK, about their children’s reading habits and found that:
- Children are spending three times as much of their time in ‘on screen’ activity at home, compared to reading traditional books according to parents (watching TV 90 minutes, playing computers 42 minutes and going online 28 minutes compared to 44 minutes a day reading).
- A fifth of parents waited until their child was 2-years old or older before reading their first book to them
- Shockingly, more than 1 in 10 parents said they read with their children less than once every six months or never and more than one in six admit that they never read a bedtime story to their children
- Nearly half (49%) of parents in the UK were reading to their child every day, but thirty per cent admitted that they only read with their child once a week or less.
- Nearly all (94%) teachers said that children don’t spend enough time reading for pleasure outside of the classroom and that children prefer spending time online rather than reading traditional books, resulting in 84% teachers saying that they needed tools to help encourage reading online.
Pearson has today launched a national ‘Enjoy Reading’ campaign designed to inspire more children to develop an early life-long love of reading, taking advantage of children’s interest in being online. A new national reading competition for schools, a new Enjoy Reading hub for parents, thousands of free books for children and innovative new ways to inspire more children to read for pleasure both on and offline are all ways that the campaign will help more children love reading.
Parents interested in improving their children's communication and reading skills should visit our dedicated campaign at www.wordsforlife.org.uk
The National Literacy Trust works with schools and teachers across the country. Visit our network to find out how to become a member.
