Scholastic conducted a national survey of children and parents to take a closer look at attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun. Key findings reveal predictors of reading frequency, the importance of reading aloud to children at various ages, how frequently children have opportunities to read for pleasure at school, and much more. The results of this survey are now available in the Scholastic 2015 Kids and Family Reading Report.
Here are some top findings from our research:
- Half of all children (51%) aged 6-17 are currently reading a book for fun and another one in five (20%) just finished one. In fact, the most powerful predictor that these children will be frequent readers is reading books for fun, with 70% of children we surveyed saying they want books that make them laugh.
- More than half of children aged 0-5 (54%) are read aloud-to at home 5-7 days a week. This declines to only one in three kids aged 6-8 (34%) and to one in six kids aged 9-11 (17%); four in 10 children aged 6–11 who are no longer read books aloud at home (40%) say they wished their parents had continued reading aloud to them.
- Children aged 6-11 who are frequent readers read an average of 43.4 books per year; whereas, infrequent readers in this age group read 21.1 books annually. An even more pronounced difference occurs among children aged 12-17, with frequent readers reading 39.6 books annually and infrequent readers reading only 4.7 books per year.
- One-third of children aged 6-17 (33%) say their class has a designated time during the school day to read a book of their choice independently, but only 17% do this every or almost every school day.
Help support your children's passion for reading by giving them books they want to read and by reading aloud to – or with – them. The more children read, the better readers they become and the more they enjoy reading.
Find book suggestions, reading strategies, and more on these topics:
Read the full Scholastic 2015 Kids and Family Reading Report here.
