Wednesday 19 December 2012

1 in 3 dads do not read to their children

I'm always surprised by stats for literacy issues in the UK - like the one where I discovered lots of children in the UK don't even have any books at all. For our family, books are a big part of our lives every day. There's always books available for my little people to pick up whenever they want a story, and we also have story time in the day when "quiet time" is needed along with bedtime stories. It's not just me that reads to the kids either - their Daddy does too and so do grandparents, aunties and uncles - my kids are never far from books. Growing up my dad read to my sisters and I and often took us to buy new books instead of sweets! I'd assumed this was normal but after seeing the stats I see I was lucky in the story department!

Here's the official article ...

Reading is down to dads too!

New research from the National Literacy Trust shows that far fewer dads than mums encourage their children to read. In fact one in three fathers gives no reading encouragement to their children at all. What’s more, the statistics from the charity’s annual survey also highlight that one third of dads are never even seen with a book in their hand, compared with one in six mums.

There is a great case for dads to step up their involvement and make a positive impact on their children’s reading development, as the research also found that the children who are encouraged to read by their parents are achieving higher reading levels at school, and that those who see their parents reading think more positively about reading than those who don’t.
Richard Madeley is supporting the call by Words for Life, the charity’s campaign for parents, for dads to get involved with their children’s reading this Christmas when they may have extra time to spend with their families. Richard says:

“Dads can make a huge difference to their children’s reading development, and there are lots of easy ways for dads to get involved. They can read a chapter a night to their kids, read school books together, or even put up their feet and be seen reading a book or the newspaper themselves!

“I started reading to my children when they were just babies, putting on the different voices and having fun with the stories. My kids have grown up to be big book fans and I think this was partly down to me enjoying books with them from an early age. Have fun reading over Christmas dads!”

The research surveyed 21,000 children and young people across the UK. Some of the key findings are:

One in three (32.9%) dads are never seen reading by their children – versus one in seven (14.9%) mums
A worsening trend as two years ago, only one in four dads (24.9%) was never seen reading by their children
Far fewer dads than mums encourage their children to read (66.3% versus 82.6%)
Below average readers are four times more likely to say their dad doesn’t encourage them to read
One young person in seven has never been to a bookshop
The role of fathers in encouraging communication and literacy development in their babies and young children is set to become even more important under the new system of flexible parental leave being introduced in 2015. New mothers will be able to return to work two weeks after childbirth and share the rest of their maternity leave with their partner, so a dad’s input will become even more crucial.
Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust, the charity behind Words for Life, said:

“It’s old fashioned to think that encouraging reading is just down to mothers. Children learn behaviours from both parents, and boys in particular benefit from male role models. With the forthcoming changes to parental leave, a father’s role in their child’s communication and literacy development is set to become of even greater importance.”

Words for Life is a National Literacy Trust campaign targeted at parents and carers to give them the tools, resources and confidence to give their child the best possible foundation in communication, reading and writing skills. One person in six in the UK cannot read, write or communicate as well as they need, and parental input, particularly in the early years, plays a key part in how well a child’s literacy skills develop.

Dads can find ideas and inspiration for simple activities they can do with their children this Christmas to help them develop better literacy skills at www.wordsforlife.org.uk.

Emma in Bromley x

1 comment:

  1. Thats such a shame, my dad always used to read to me and think it's really helped with my articulation

    ReplyDelete

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Emma x