Children rediscover joy of reading courtesy of digital revolution
Amidst much fretting over the impact of digital technology on the lives of young children one positive side effect may be an increase in literacy, according to the National Literacy Trust.
The body commissioned a survey to gauge the impact of texting, social media, instant messaging and the internet on reading ability, finding that rather than killing off traditional books such activities actually enhanced children’s enjoyment of reading.
Within these general trends however girls are still far more likely to be enthusiastic than boys, particularly those from poorer households who continue to lag wider society.
Overall the study found that 54.4 per cent of respondents liked to read, extending a trend of rising engagement which first became apparent five years ago, when the comparable figure stood at just 49.1 per cent.
Drilling down further 41.4 per cent said they read daily outside the classroom, a marked increase on last year’s 32.2 per cent, although the most significant surge came via those of secondary school age where the proportion of daily readers jumped from 24.6 to 38.2 per cent.
Top children’s reading material:
Texts: 72.6 per cent
Websites: 54.5 per cent
Social media: 53.6 per cent
Emails: 50.4 per cent
Lyrics: 50.3 per cent
Instant messaging: 49.1 per cent
Magazines: 48.7 per cent
Fiction: 46.7 per cent
Non-fiction: 34.2 per cent
Papers: 30.7 per cent
Comics: 28.6 per cent