Study: Youngsters reading fewer books
By Motoko, Rich, New York Times
Cue the hand-wringing about digital distraction: Fewer children are reading books frequently for fun, according to a report released Thursday by Scholastic, the children’s book publisher.
In a 2014 survey of just over 1,000 children ages 6 to 17, only 31 percent said they read a book for fun almost daily, down from 37 percent four years ago.
There were some consistent patterns among the heavier readers: For the younger children — ages 6 to 11 — being read aloud to regularly and having restricted online time were correlated with frequent reading; for the older children — ages 12 to 17 — one of the largest predictors was whether they had time to read on their own during the school day.
The finding about reading aloud to children long after toddlerhood may come as a surprise to some parents who read books to children at bedtime when they were very young but then tapered off. Last summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a new policy recommending that all parents read to their children from birth.
This article is a sad tale about reading for fun. It is an incredibly important part of my family. I began to read to my sons while they were in utero. Reading helped them through their teen years and I believe they are successful adults because of the skills reading gave them (focus, attention to detail, etc). In addition, it bonded us, from the beginning, as we would cuddle while reading and books became their friends. Please parents- read to your child. Your library has amazing books, for free. There isn’t a good excuse not to share reading with your children and tons of good reasons why you should.
I think smart phones have begun to fill the role of the “orgasmitron” in Woody Allen’s movie Sleeper. Denise above makes a great recommendation, but sadly it seems fewer and fewer parents actually interact with their kids or bother to assess what it means to have children who think having friends on Facebook develops their social skills.
Between the smart phones and the constant music the kids never have a chance to day dream and let their minds wonder.
As a child I did some of my best thinking walking home from school.
I am a retired elementary teacher. The point was made in the article that it is helpful for parents to continue reading to their children after they learn to read. Here’s why. The average child can understand language more sophisticated than he can read until he is 11 or 12. Reading aloud to a child is a wonderful opportunity to provide and discuss books rich in language.
A strategy that works well with children of all ages reading relatively challenging material is pair reading, where the adult and the child take turns reading a few paragraphs. This weekend, for example my fifth grade grandson and I took turns reading Gary Paulson’s wonderful novel, Hatchet. The fact that there were a few words he didn’t know and couldn’t sound out didn’t matter, as I could supply them quickly to keep the gist of the story in his mind. Not surprisingly, as we continued, he became more and more fluent, as there is much repetition of vocabulary in any book.
Happy reading with your young people!