October 2012
Featured in this insight: Culture, heritage & leisure, IT & telecommunications, Media & publishing, Children & young people
Poll reveals children read fewer bedtime stories: Research carried out by YouGov for education publishers Pearson has revealed that nearly a third of parents read a bedtime story to their child once a week or less.
The study asked 2,008 parents and 410 teachers about children’s reading habits, with 10% of the parents admitting they don’t read to their child more than once every half year. Of the teachers involved in the survey, 94% said they thought children were not reading enough in their leisure time outside of school, while three out of four teachers claimed that children’s attention spans were better in the past.
Parents revealed that their children, on average, watch TV for 90 minutes a day, play video games for 42 minutes, surf the web for 28 minutes and only spend 44 minutes reading books.
Of the parents questioned, one in five admitted to waiting for their child to turn two or older before reading them their first bedtime story. However, nearly half said they read a story to their child every day.
Rod Bristow, president of Pearson UK commented: “Study after study has shown that reading for pleasure is a key indicator of future success for children, but demands on children’s attention and the difficulty of inspiring reluctant readers mean many are missing out.”
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