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Ordinary Kids Read As Infrequently As Ordinary Adults: Less Than 5 Books Per Year

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Among parents of children 6-17, almost three-quarters (71%) agree, “I wish my children would do more things that did not involve screen time.”

Seeing how as we’re talking about screen time, custom demands that we create some sort of polarization. We should set it up in opposition to something more pure, more morally acceptable, more traditional. Even in supposedly secular times, we are plagued by irrational fears. That’s just the way our cultural narratives operate. And so, a full 75% agree, “I wish my child would read more books for fun.”

This is all according to Scholastic’s Kids and Family Reading Report which is packed with interesting tidbits about children’s reading habits. Consider, for example, that 51% of kids ages 6-17 are “currently reading a book for fun and another one in five (20%) just finished one.” These kids are “frequent readers,” which Scholastic defines as “children who read books for fun 5-7 days a week.”

According to Scholastic’s study, there are substantial differences between “Frequent Readers” and “Infrequent Readers,” who only read for fun one day a week. 75% of Infrequent Readers “say they haven’t read a book for fun in a while.” When you look at how such a difference accumulates as children age, the numbers get interesting. A Frequent reader, age 6-11, reads about 44 books per year, while an Infrequent reader reads only around 22. And that difference increases substantially as kids get older. Infrequent readers, age 12-17, only read 4.7 books a year.

Note that the frequency of reading drops off heavily in the teen years. Apparently, reading gets less interesting, or perhaps, it gets uncool as kids get older. Maybe teenagers don’t read books because, in our current cultural atmosphere, it doesn’t seem like the grown up thing to do. That’s the argument I made last may in response to Common Sense Media’s news that since 1984 “the percent of 13-year-olds who are weekly readers went down from 70% to 53%, and the percent of 17-year-olds who are weekly readers went from 64% to 40%.” My post entitled “Kids Don’t Read Books Because Parents Don’t Read Books” proved to be very popular. Whether it was Frequent or Infrequent readers that enjoyed it, I don’t know.

Scholastic’s study may confirm that adults who are concerned about the lack of reading may need to look at their own behavior. The study explains that “there are several predictors that children ages 6-17 will be frequent readers.” One predictor has to do with whether or not parents model frequent reading behavior. The other predictors seem to be products of the ways in which kids are taught to imagine themselves as readers. They include: “being more likely to rate themselves as ‘really enjoying reading’” and “a strong belief that reading for fun is important.”

When we put our panic about the decline of educated society aside and look at the data, things actually look bleaker for adults than they do for children. As things stand, kids are actually modeling better behavior around reading than adults. Although a 2009 report suggests that the average American consumes 100,000 words per day, the New York Times explains, “this doesn’t mean we read 100,000 words a day—it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a single 24-hour period.” Perhaps there’s so much information overload, so many blogs and so much web journalism to skim and retweet, so many signs, fonts, and advertisements, that adults don’t have time for reading books anymore.

Maybe we should be more worried about how smart phones and social media impact grown-up reading habits than we should be worried about the way video games and cartoons impact children. According to Pew’s 2013 Snapshot of Reading in America, the average (mean) adult reads only 12 books—significantly less than a 6-11 year old Infrequent reader (22 books). But averages can be misleading. When you consider the median, Pew’s snapshot reveals that half of Americans read less than five books per year. All of which seems to suggest to me that Infrequent Readers age 12-17, who read 4.7 book per year, are shaping up to be ordinary American adults.

As I’ve written many times before, if our goal is to keep our society on track to stay the same, our education system is working just fine.

If your goal, however, is to turn your child into an overachiever, I’d suggest you stop blaming video games and start taking an engaged interest in their reading habits. While Scholastic reports that 54% of children ages 0-5 are “read aloud to at home 5-7 days a week” that number declines sharply at ages 6-8 (34%) and even more when kids reach 9-11 (%17). Not only do kids (40%) want you to keep reading to them—83% of children across age groups say they love being read to—studies also seem to suggest that if you do, they are more likely to become Frequent readers.

Also, help them pick out books to read alone. Start with graphic novels. I tricked my kids into reading for fun by taking them to the library and letting them pick out Doug Tennappel’s graphic novels. They read every single one. And when his newest, Nnewts: Escape from the Lizzarks was released a couple of weeks ago, my two kids fought over who got to read it first. Then, after the dust cleared, both devoured the book in an hour or two. Coincidentally, I randomly met Doug on the street in Nashville a couple of years ago and I thanked him profusely for teaching my kids to read.

Now my sons (7 and 9 years old) are into Shakespeare. They don’t read the original text. Instead, I bought them graphic novel adaptations by Classical Comics. This phenomenal company offers quick text, plain text, and original text editions of many of the Bard’s plays. Quick text adapts the drama into simple language. Plain text simply removes words like “thou” and “wherefore.” Original text is what you read in high school but with pictures. My kids started with MacBeth (in plain text) and begged me to order more. I’m also rereading them all myself—in the same plain text comic book form (so I can talk with them about the stories). Parental interest fuels their interest and hopefully, it encourages the kinds of attitudes around books that Scholastic says are strong predictors of frequent reading: “being more likely to rate themselves as ‘really enjoying reading’” and “a strong belief that reading for fun is important.”

In addition to graphic novels, my kids also enjoy chapter books and I use Common Sense Media’s book reviews to help me choose the best option for them. We sit around the computer, read the reviews together and make a list of books to reserve at the library. I’m not just trying to be an engaged father, I’m also trying to model extra-ordinary habits around books. Although Scholastic says that 65% of children “agree that they’ll always want to read books in print even though there are ebooks available,” we use an eReader regularly. My children share it. Kobo’s waterproof Aura H20 is more expensive than the Kindle, but also more durable. I reviewed it a few months ago. Their “Kobo Kids” program is convenient because it allows you to give them a monthly ebook allowance so they can choose their own books. Does the eReader count as screen time? I suppose it depends on how paranoid you choose to be.

The bottom line is that if you leave your kids to their own devices (pun intended) they are bound to pick video games, television, and movies. Can you blame them? Interactive media is like a dance party: colorful, engaging, and exciting. If you approach children’s media, whether digital or print, as a way to keep your kids occupied so you don’t have to pay attention, they’ll choose the most vibrant babysitter. If you read with them, they’ll develop habits that are not only good for their intellectual and emotional development, but also give you parental bragging rights.

While I’m making suggestions: why not institute family reading times? Have everyone, children and parents, sit together and reads books. Think of it as an alternative to prime time in the era of streaming television.

 

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