Childrens reading habits - study

Studies I've seen show children are still reading by the millions. But most kids, and most adults, never did read many novels. Nothing has changed. Especially bad parenting.

I bet the kids that do not read have parents that seldom/never sit down of an evening and read. After dinner the boob tube comes on and folks wind down. Monkey see.....monkey do.

Maybe it's why so many YA books are being written now. Trying to get them back into it. ??????

Yeah...it's sad. I grew up in a reading household, a place where books outranked just about anything else.

My Little One loves to read and to write. In fact, last night she wrote a story about a worm, and Chapter One was "Respect to Books."

I can't say she'd rather read than watch SpongeBob, but she does enjoy reading and being read to very much. One of my favorite lazy, rainy afternoons was spent with her, both of us in separate chairs with cozy blankets, reading our own books. It was quiet but for the sound of each of us turning pages. It was lovely.

When me and my little sister were primary (elementary) school age (late 90s-early 00s) we shared a room and had a bookcase of our own books, and there was a larger one downstairs, with Mum & Dad's books, dictionaries, cookbooks etc. We never had a TV in our room as Mum believed that reading was more important (but then even in the early 2000s most households only had one TV, like us). We were also read to every night, and I believe that that was one of the most important things of all. My cousin just puts his kids to bed with a DVD at night, as do many people I know, and they lose so much because of that. The parent/child bonding of sharing a story together, and also the learning of new words and ideas are things sadly lacking in a lot of childrens' lives. When I'm older and (hopefully) have children I plan to buy all my old favourites and read to them, and maybe they'll learn to love books as much as me

Books are important in my household, yet the kids have seen me read on my phone or the computer more and more recently. They have a wide selection of books to read in their room, and they have some really interesting puzzle book apps on my iphone that they like and the story is read to them while they use.

I'm not sure the format matters as much, but whether electronic or paper, we emphasize books in addition to other forms of entertainment.

CACTUSWENDY said:

I bet the kids that do not read have parents that seldom/never sit down of an evening and read. After dinner the boob tube comes on and folks wind down. Monkey see.....monkey do.

Maybe it's why so many YA books are being written now. Trying to get them back into it. ??????

Click to expand...

My mom made us read for at least thirty minutes a night when we were younger. My parents aren't much of readers, but I read when I feel like it. Technology is taking over this generation. Maybe that could be an underlying motivation for the YA lit boom. You can't really force anybody to read. Maybe one day they can read on TV. hehe

The Reach Out and Read program has alarming statistics about the brain development of children who are not read to, and the long term effects on children's development and prospects when they grow up in households that do not read.

~suki

I and my husband read constantly, as does my son.

His older sister? Denies she ever reads anything outside Twilight and its friends.

Except when sorting out her bedroom this weekend, having (I thought) given up the unequal fight, I suggested she gave all these books she never ever reads to her little brother. I got a sequence of

"No, I like that one."
"Oh, I remember that!"
"That's my favourite!"
"I want to read that one again."
"He can't have those!"

Seems she reads rather more than she lets on

I think reading is often treated as a child's thing. There's this big push, I don't know about in the UK but here, to get younger children to read. Schools and libraries do it even if the parents don't. As the kids get older, though, everyone figures they know how to read so they don't care anymore. By the time you're dealing with adults reading is no longer considered a positive thing. It's something that's seen as less productive and social than other activities, the realm of loners and intellectuals rather than the common man. I think kids see this attitude as they grow up and end up adopting it.

And yet, so much of our current lifestyle depends on literacy and reading comprehension........

Weird, now I come to think about it, I've never seen my parents read (I know they do, not very often, but still) but I always read voraciously. My son's the same - got hooked when he read the Hobbit on his own, now reads a LOT. Took a while to find things my daughter was interested in reading (Michael Morpurgo got her hooked)

Yeah they play on the computer etc as well. But I restrict that. Not everyone does, or has restricted their children's activities. Not all people are readers - some prefer to do other things. I think that was always the same, only now they do studies on it.

In my son's school, students are allowed to bring ereaders for reading time, and a friend of mine teaches in a school that is pushing for all student texts to be on iPads in the next 5 years. But that is still reading. What concerns me is the number of students who never pick up text of any sort, but spend their evenings in front of the television.

All four of my kids love reading and their friends must be reading, too, because the older kids often read certain novels just so that they will be "in the know" with their friends. My older kids would love to have ereaders, but I don't think that will stop them from reading traditionally published books any more than it has stopped me. I just read more than ever now.
There are and always will be parents who place little or no value on reading and who will raise kids who are nonreaders as well. We, as a society, are focusing on it now because of technology boom and the high cost of paper have put reading in the spotlight. But I honestly think we're panicking over nothing. Ereaders are making avid readers out of people who previously read very little.

I am only concerned with my own children. They have Kindles and Kobos on their Android smartphones. They both have novels loaded onto their phones...and they both read them. Other children...that's up to their parents OR themselves.

If a child is a reader, they will read...and they will probably always read.

I can remember watching my father reading a novel every night after dinner, with his fist tucked under his chin in concentration.

I read a lot. I also read a lot with my own kids. And I try to make it fun, because really...they'd probably be playing Angry Birds. *roll eyes*

For example, I'll be reading a children's version of Oliver Twist with my son this fall, and then we'll have a "date-night" to see a marionette version of it. I predict fun.

I am not concerned about my children, aged 13, 11 and 7 reading; they all read for pleasure daily. I am deeply concerned about other children, so I have volunteered for almost 8 years now, listening to children read aloud at school. I find every year that there are children who hate reading, and who do not read at home at all, but I always see an improvement in their enjoyment with regular practise. Some of them will never be avid readers, but at least they don't dread it any more. I have a habit of hunting down the kids who never read at home and making sure that they have read their home readers to a caring adult most days of the school week.

I can't change the world, but I feel that my enthusiasm for reading has changed some lives for the better.

seun said:

It's the attitude that bothers me, the whole who cares deal.

Click to expand...

Well...it is comments on THE INTERNETS, the home of people who don't give a crap about anything.

I think James is right...not all that many people have ever read novels. Fans of novels read novels, at any age. I think children who have readers for parents are very likely to enjoy reading themselves and those who don't aren't so likely. My mother has never been much of a reader but she pushed my sister and me to read from a very early age...she always felt somewhat hindered in life by her difficulties with reading comprehension and attention span. But I think that's pretty rare. I think most parents who don't enjoy reading won't be likely to instill an appreciation for books in their kids.

But I think it's always been that way.

ETA: Now I'm trying to reverse the natural order of things...I've been getting my mom audio books of some of my favorite novels, which she really likes listening to in the car, and I've read most of The Great Gatsby aloud to her, which was really fun (especially because we were aided by copious amounts of WINE.) We'll make a reader of her yet!

I read to my kids every night. Always have.

I read the article and to be honest I wasn't really suprised, here's a few things I observed when I taught:

1. Kids in primary school read for fun - stories are just entertainment.

2. Kids in secondary school are made to read for work - usually classics that they either aren't ready for or are not able to identify with as much as more contemporary literature that they would have been reading previously.

3. studying texts tends to shift the focus from enjoying books to trying to understand how they work, this puts a lot of kids off becauase reading ceases to be fun and instead becomes something they associate with work.

4. peer pressure - it's simply 'not cool' in certain cirlces to be a book nerd and the majority of kids don't want to be different from their friends.

I've found that there is a dip in reading in kids from about age 13 to about 17, after that theres another little dip in college age and shortly afterwards. These are the periods where students are most likely to be force fed books that they would not have chosen themselves.

I can only speak from my own experiences and what I have personally observed, but I really feel that there is a correlation between the amount a child reads and how they are taught about literature. It's no suprise to me that kids of exam age read less than either adults or primary school children.

I personally feel that we need to look at how we teach literature to exam age kids in order to make reading fun again and not about hard work.

Libbie said:

ETA: Now I'm trying to reverse the natural order of things...I've been getting my mom audio books of some of my favorite novels, which she really likes listening to in the car, and I've read most of The Great Gatsby aloud to her, which was really fun (especially because we were aided by copious amounts of WINE.) We'll make a reader of her yet!

Click to expand...

My best friend has dyslexia, but she loves to read. She discovered audio books a couple of years ago and she loves them. She listens to them when she works nights, or in the car, and she is, as a result, more widely 'read' than I am.

I think audio books are a brilliant thing, especially for people who find it hard to read, or who can't sit still to do it. I like to listen to them when I'm at the gym, or in the car.

My granny is blind and has been getting audio books (or 'tapes' as she still calls them) through the post for about 20 years.

Jamesaritchie said:

Studies I've seen show children are still reading by the millions. But most kids, and most adults, never did read many novels. Nothing has changed. Especially bad parenting.

Click to expand...

Oh hell's bells, I'm agreeing with JAR.
It used to be TV, now it's Facebook. I don't see anything really new here.

IdiotsRUs said:

Yeah they play on the computer etc as well. But I restrict that. Not everyone does, or has restricted their children's activities. Not all people are readers - some prefer to do other things. I think that was always the same, only now they do studies on it.

Click to expand...

My parents had to restrict my reading. "Five minutes reading, and then you have to go to sleep."
Torch + quilt ftw.

Am I the only person that has trouble with audio books? They drive me crazy and I don't like them at all.