A love of literature really does enrich your life. Besides, of course, allowing our imaginations to flit between faraway lands (Narnia! Middle Earth! The Emerald City!), reading also plays an important role in brain development.
Unfortunately, though, fewer pre-school children are being read to daily, according to a new UK report.
The Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer survey from Nielsen Book Research found that a mere 51 percent of kids in this demographic are being read to every day.
This is a dramatic drop from the 69 percent of little ones being read to daily in 2013, according to The Guardian.
The annual survey was carried out in the UK in autumn. Researchers interviewed 1,596 parents of 0- to 13-year-olds, and 417 of 14- to 17-year-olds.
When parents of three- to four-year-olds were asked why they decided to forgo reading to their kids, 19 percent answered that it was due to 'the struggle to find energy at the end of the day'.
16 percent said that they didn't crack open a book with their little one because of 'the child’s preference to do other things'.
As well, 46 percent of mums and dads of kids in this demographic said they are 'overwhelmed by the choice of children’s books', with 21 percent finding that they 'don’t feel comfortable in bookshops'.
The research, co-funded by publisher Egmont, unsurprisingly found that 61 percent of parents were concerned about their child's amount of screen time.
"We know that parents are increasingly concerned about screen time, especially the popularity of YouTube among young children," noted Alison David, Egmont’s consumer insight director.
"Our research tells us we need to give children a real range of print alternatives to choose from, whether that’s a magazine, a graphic novel, a comic or a picture book."
"A sense of agency, and being given the freedom to pick their own reading material, is far more effective in creating lifelong readers than a strict reading list," she added.
So let's get reading! With World Book Day right around the corner, let's make our kids into little bookworms.
