A report by BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, found that 345,000 primary school children in the UK (14 per cent) receive less than 15 minutes of shared reading a week.
The charity defines a child who is read to or with for pleasure for less than 15 minutes a week outside of school as living in ‘literary poverty’.
A further 17 per cent of UK children are read to or with for less than half an hour a week, while six per cent of children aged between seven and nine are never read to or with at all, the research found.
BookTrust also found that just a third (37 per cent) of young children in the UK are reading with or being read to by a parent or carer for over an hour a week in total, and although nine in ten parents believe that reading for pleasure is important for their child, children aged between seven and 11 are on average reading for pleasure for 28 minutes less a week than their parents did at the same age.
One in seven parents or carers never read their child a bedtime story, the charity said.
In response to the findings, former Waterstones Children’s Laureate Anne Fine has launched BookTrust’s annual fundraising Pyjamarama campaign to call on families to rediscover the joy of reading.
Pyjamarama invites primary schools and nurseries to sign up and allow children to wear their pyjamas all day on Friday 5 June 2020 to celebrate the bedtime story in return for a £1 donation
All funds raised will go towards helping BookTrust ensure that every child can access books and reading.
Ms Fine said, ‘For the parent, sharing a story with a small child is a sanity-saving, calming comfort, and reading to an older child soon becomes addictive. I’d encourage everyone to put aside the screens a little more to engage children with reading. It truly does work wonders.’
Gemma Malley, director at BookTrust, added, ‘We are seeing a real cliff-edge in terms of children reading for enjoyment and whilst parents want their children to read more, there’s a real danger that families are sleepwalking into literary poverty.
‘We know that reading for enjoyment is closely linked to academic development as well as building confidence and resilience, and children who are read to are much more likely to read for enjoyment themselves.
‘We hope that through Pyjamarama we can encourage families across the country to reconnect with reading and to snuggle up with a fantastic book together.’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, added, ‘It is so important that parents try to set aside time for reading with their children as often as possible. Learning to read is one of the fundamentals of life and one of the best ways parents can support their children at home. Reading together is a wonderful way for families and children to spend quality time together and can help foster a love of reading that may last a lifetime.’
- More information on Pyjamarama