Fewer American children are reading for pleasure than they have in the past, according to a new report from Common Sense Media.
The research revealed that the number of nine-year-old kids that read for pleasure once or more per week went from 81 percent in 1984 to 76 percent in 2013. The numbers are worse for older kids. Only about a third of 13-year-old children reported reading for pleasure less than twice a year.
Children who do read for pleasure tended to be those kids whose parents read to them and whose parents read themselves. Those kids who are read to by an adult spend about 30-60 minutes a day reading.
So what's the future for our children's reading for fun? My prediction is rather bleak unless more adults begin to exercise best practices in reading on a regular basis to their children. Teachers can only do so much; adult caregivers must complete the picture.
Many young children love being read to by their special adult/s. Buying your favorite child a book, keeping books they love close at hand, and having a regular daily or nightly reading time are but a few ways we can ratchet up an interest in books and stories. Who knows? You might love the time spent as much as your young one/s!
A new infographic outlines how many hours people around the globe spend reading books, and the United States is ranked 23rd on the list.
Below, are listed the top 30 countries–sorting them by mean hours spent reading. Russia Beyond the Headlines created the infographic using data from the World Culture Score index, a list compiled in 2005. Have a look:
Consumers in India are most likely to spend time reading, at an average of 10.7 hours per week, followed by consumers in Thailand and China (at 9.4 hours and 8 hours per week respectively). At 3.1, 4.1 and 5 hours respectively, individuals in Korea, Japan and Taiwan fall to the bottom of the reading list.
What can we do in the U.S. to improve this, according to your humble blogger, deplorable statistic? We can read to our children. That is the solution. So many kids in this country suffer from a deficit of parental and/or caregiver involvement in their reading health.
We need to read to them. We need to model good reading habits ourselves. We need to make an interest in reading front and center in our lives. It rubs off!
This is not a good statistic for the U.S. And we can change it, if not for ourselves, certainly then for our children.
Hours Spent Reading Around the Globe
1. India 10.7
2. Thailand 9.4
3. China 8.0
4. Philippines 7.6
5. Egypt 7.5
6. Czech Republic 7.4
7. Russia 7.1
8. Sweden 6.9
9. France 6.9
10. Hungary 6.8
11. Saudi Arabia 6.8
12. Hong Kong 6.7
13. Poland 6.5
14. Venezuela 6.4
15. South Africa 6.3
16. Australia 6.3
17. Indonesia 6.0
18. Argentina 5.9
19. Turkey 5.9
20. Spain 5.8
21. Canada 5.8
22. Germany 5.7
23. USA 5.7
24. Italy 5.6
25. Mexico 5.5
26. U.K. 5.3
27. Brazil 5.2
28. Taiwan 5.0
29. Japan 4.1
30. Korea 3.1
