Parents urged to read to children
Fewer than one in two parents say they read to their children each day, with one child in 10 getting a bedtime story less than once a month or never, according to figures published today.
A “state of the storytelling nation” study by the campaign team behind this year’s National Year of Reading presents both good and bad news: parents who do read to their children regularly do so with humour and inventiveness; but there is a rump of parents who do not bother at all.
Honor Wilson-Fletcher, director of the National Year of Reading, said: “Parents just need to understand the importance of making it fun. There is a relationship between reading in later life and storytelling and how well you do it. The better you are at it the more likely you will enjoy it, and the other way round.”
Of 2,207 parents surveyed by YouGov, 49% read to children each day. On average, 19% read four or five times a week, 14% two or three times a week, 5% once a week, 5% once a month or less, and 5% never.
Funny stories are the most popular choice. While 12% of parents said their children liked traditional fairytales, 28% said humorous stories by the likes of Roald Dahl and Dr Seuss went down the best.
Most parents throw themselves into storytelling, with 82% putting on accents for characters – “posh” was top choice for a hero (followed by Yorkshire and cockney) and cockney top for a villain (then posh and Scottish). Most popular books were The Gruffalo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The BFG, and (tied) Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill and CS Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.