Reading

Important Facts about childhood literacy rates and the reading habits of children:

Just 6 additional minutes of reading per day can significantly improve kids’ reading performance. 

When it comes to the importance of reading, statistics show that a little reading goes a long way. Case in point: the difference in reading habits between children who meet the grade-level benchmarks and those who don’t amounts to just 6 minutes per day. 

 

 

The benefits of reading to children, statistics show, include increased activation in certain brain regions. 

Research by the American Academy of Pediatrics examined the link between brain activity in young children and home reading exposure. They found a strong association between children being read to and activation in areas involved in language development. 

 

Children who read at least 20 minutes a day are exposed to almost 2 million words per year. 

In contrast, kids who read at home for five minutes a day will hear only 282,000 words per year. But that’s not all. 

Kids who engage in reading 20 minutes a day, statistics show, are likely to score better than 90% of their peers on standardized tests. 

 

Exposing kids to e-books could increase average reading levels by up to 8.4 months.

According to a National Literacy Trust study, access to an e-book platform also improved kids’ reading comprehension. The number of boys who thought reading was difficult dropped from 28% at the start of the study, to 15.9% by its end.  

Furthermore, the percentage of children involved in the study who enjoyed reading books on paper jumped from 10% to 40%.  

 

Reading statistics show 83% of children who are read aloud to love it or like it a lot. 

The research done by Scholastic Publishing showed that read-aloud time is on the rise. In 2014, the percentage of parents who read to their child before their first year was 73%. In 2018, that percentage went up to 77%. 

 

In one of the most heart-warming facts about reading to your child, over 80% of both kids and parents saw read-aloud time as a positive experience. Most parents (over 92%) reported reading aloud is a special time between them and their kids.