Teachers know that reading for pleasure can significantly impact a child’s education, not only in terms of their performance in reading tests but also their general well-being, vocabulary development, appreciation of other cultures, and knowledge.
The pandemic's wide-ranging impact on reading for pleasure comes as no surprise to anyone in the education sector.
In 2020, the National Literacy Trust reported:
- Children and young people’s levels of reading enjoyment continued to decline and were at their lowest since 2005.
- Children and young people’s daily reading levels were at the lowest ever recorded, with just 25.8% of children saying they read daily in their free time in 2019.
In 2021, the National Literacy Trust reported:
- 1 in 2 (51.5%) children and young people said that they enjoyed reading. This is slightly lower than the percentage recorded during the first spring lockdown in 2020 (55.9%), but higher than levels at the beginning of 2020.
- 2 in 5 (44.6%) children and young people agreed that reading made them feel better.
- ‘Reading to relax’ was one of the main reasons why children and young people were reading in early 2021, with 1 in 2 (52.7%) saying this, followed by ‘educational aspects’, namely helping to learn about new things (51.4%) and learning new words (49.8%).
It is encouraging to see children and young people’s attitudes towards reading for enjoyment improve after the numerous Covid related national lockdowns.
Educational technology as a solution
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