It is clear that the number of digital distractions for young people have exploded as apps, handheld games and other online attractions fight for attention. But what is the impact on the time spent reading and enjoying books?
Scholastic, the company which has provided books for pre-school and school age children for generations, has studied reading patterns among children and their parents since 2010. They have released their latest survey and the numbers are showing drops in some very important categories.
To read the entire Scholastic
Kids & Family Reading Report, click here.
The latest data from children ages 6-17 reconfirms that reading books for fun, as well as positive sentiment towards reading, decrease as kids grow up, with marked declines by age 9 that do not rebound, according to the The Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, which the company compiles every two years.
The reports also show a decline since 2018 in both the number of parents who began reading aloud to their child before the age of three months and the number of parents of children ages 0-5 who have heard/received advice that children should be read aloud to from birth.
However, as kids and parents alike reported, the positive sentiment for reading aloud remains strong, giving hope that these declines can be reversed. With the majority of parents agreeing that reading aloud is important and the majority of both parents and kids agreeing that reading aloud is/was a special time there is an opportunity to build a stronger read-aloud culture, according to the report.
Several important results:
The survey finds that the impact on youth reading that worsened during the pandemic has continued and expanded. There are also correlations to the mental health of young people that are related to their reading habits.
“Half of parents of 6- to 17-year-olds (51%) believe their child’s mental health was negatively affected by their pandemic experiences,” according to the survey.
The survey also studied how Summer Reading programs and school librarians are positive forces in beginning to reverse the serious downward slide in reading and enjoyment of books by young people.
But the most immediate negative impact comes from the electronic options that are increasingly targeting a younger audience, according to the survey.
“With more participation in structured activities and digital engagement, reading is facing increased competition for children’s free time. The Kids & Family Reading Report shows that many children’s digital activities have risen since 2018, including playing games or using apps on an electronic device (84% in 2022 vs. 74% in 2018), watching videos on YouTube (82% vs. 75%), and going online for fun (61% vs. 55%). Of note, children ages 6–11 are increasingly participating in digital activities for fun, including a 13% increase in watching videos on YouTube. Most parents (86%) say they wish their child would do more things that did not involve screen time, an increase from 80% in 2018. As one parent of a 9-year-old shared, “I’d like my son to spend more time reading than on screens of various sorts.”