It’s fairly clear that when parents ask how they can best support their child at home, the simple but most effective response is to encourage positive attitudes towards reading.
There have been quite a few reports and news stories recently about the importance of reading. One of the most surprising, perhaps, is the news that keen readers do better at maths. The study suggests that reading for pleasure is more important to a child’s development than how educated their parents were, leading to a 14.4% advantage in vocabulary, a 9.9% advantage in maths and an 8.6% advantage in spelling.
Other studies back this up: reading plays a key role in children’s development.
Young people who enjoy reading very much are nearly five times as likely to read above the expected level for their age compared with young people who do not enjoy reading at all.
Research also shows that reading for pleasure has a positive impact on children’s attainment in reading assessments. Children who read for pleasure have enhanced levels of text comprehension, an increased knowledge of grammar and show improvement in their writing. They also have more positive attitudes towards reading than their peers.
The advantages of reading for pleasure go beyond academic achievement. Other benefits include an increased breadth of vocabulary, pleasure in reading in later life, a better understanding of other cultures, better general knowledge and even a greater insight into human nature.
Research by the National Literacy Trust indicated a number of concerns about children’s reading habits. The researcher found that only three young people in 10 were reading daily in their own time and that the number of children and young people who enjoyed reading ‘very much’ or ‘quite a lot’ had barely changed since 2005 (50% in 2011 and 51% in 2005). The researchers went on to suggest that many children and young people enjoyed reading but that it was ‘pushed out’ in favour of other activities.
In fact: developing a love of reading can be more important for a child’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic background.