This report by the Education Policy Institute reviews the evidence around reading skills, related outcomes and interventions.
The review examines the evidence on the effect of reading on children and young people’s long term educational, occupational and health outcomes; the effectiveness of approaches used to enhance reading skills, including a critical discussion of the quality of the evidence; and aims to shine a light on what the literature has to say about aspects of Essex’s Year of Reading programme.
Children who cannot read effectively are likely to face significant challenges, and we know that early reading skills predict later reading skills. Children who are poor readers at age 8, for instance, were almost 20 times more likely to be poor readers at age 11.
Evidence from England also suggests that prior attainment in early literacy skills, as measured by the Year 1 phonics check, is highly correlated with reading performance on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).
As children grow older, disparities between proficient and poor readers may grow larger. Therefore, understanding the relationship between reading and later outcomes, as well as the evidence on interventions that strengthen reading skills remains important to the sector and policymakers alike.
Main Findings:
- Children and young people’s reading ability is an important predictor of longer-term outcomes. The studies reviewed found significant associations between reading ability and educational attainment, social and emotional skills, physical and mental health, occupational success, and employment earnings.
- It’s also clear that attitudes towards reading and frequency of reading are associated with concurrent reading abilities and long-term outcomes – providing insight into additional reasons why reading skills are important.
- Reading ability is thought to be the product of word reading and language comprehension skills. As such, reading skills can be measured based on the components of word reading skills (for example, word reading efficiency) and/or language comprehension skills (for example, vocabulary and grammar).
- In England, there is an emphasis on ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ instruction – a mode of learning to read that emphasises the links between letters and sounds. In other high-income countries where English is the dominant language, methods also include ‘whole language’ or balanced (i.e. mixed phonics and whole language) approaches.
- Phonics instruction has powerful effects on children’s early word reading skills. However, the effects are far smaller at follow up (mean follow-up time for the studies looked at was 11.2 months).
- In the absence of a large-scale, randomised control trial with an active and passive control group, it is unclear whether systematic synthetic phonics instruction is more effective than other approaches to teaching reading.