Parents are damaging their children’s literacy by abandoning reading with them too soon – typically by the age of seven – according to research.
Around two-thirds of six year olds enjoy bedtime stories or other recreational reading with an adult.
But that plummets to 44 per cent among children who are just a year older as mothers and fathers assume their help is no longer needed.
A survey of 1,000 children by Oxford University Press found around two-thirds of six year olds said they enjoy reading with an adult. Yet, that figure plummets to 44 per cent among children who are just a year older. Half of eight and nine year olds were rarely or never read to at home.
Of course we know the situation is worse in Nigeria. Parents these days hardly have time for their children, let alone read them stories. Although this statistics represents that of the USA, learning pattern however, is universal. If we want to imbibe good reading culture in our children, bed time stories might be the answer.
