Decline in number of children being read to before starting school.

[CrocusesFlowering]

This is just depressing to read.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/children-reading-school-laureate-phillipson-b2938529.html
Although it's a similar pattern in other countries. Finland is taking action to try to foster reading.
https://chytomo.com/en/helsinki-takes-action-to-reverse-the-reading-decline/

We read to our 4YO every night. He has cerebral palsy and he has delays in areas like SLT so reading to him is so important for us to at least try and get him to where he should be. He loves books and will get up every morning and ask for us to set him up in his bed with a pile of books he flicks through and "reads" in his own way. I love that he loves books from such a young age and they bring him so much joy. I was a real bookworm as a child and I can't imagine not reading to your child or even yourself!

This is exactly it. I wonder if it's that parents are so used to handing their children over to carers at nursery/childminder, that they are just not developing some vital parenting skills or awareness of what they should actually be doing to bring on their child's development? Years ago when fewer children went to FT nursery, parents saw a lot more other parents actually, you know, parenting! They picked up skills from each other even if they weren't interested in picking up a parenting manual.

Perhaps some parents now see a child being read to as a task that is done in an educational establishment. Sad if so.

It is vitally vitally important that we read to our own children, from a very young age. Even the youngest of babies can be read to, and once they can sit up they can sit on your knee and help turn the page in the right direction, look at the pictures, and start to realise that the squiggles on the page actually mean something, that's the first stage in learning to read. It helps with language acquisition and vocabulary development, is a lovely bonding time between parent and child, it really shouldn't be reduced to a phonics lesson in Reception.

Of course you can. I'm really shocked at those just making excuses. What's next? "We get in too late during the week so there just isn't time for a bath" or "I just don't have time to potty train her, so I put her in pull ups and she just does it in there"

I mean, come on.

I read to my class daily. They each have a copy and the expectation is that they follow the text (ideally with their finger.) Most of them do follow along but there are several children that just cannot do it.

One boy doesn't follow the text but does sit and listen intently to the story. He stares at me and I can tell he's listening carefully. I love catching his eye whilst I'm reading and knowing that he's lost in the world contained in the book.

The potty training thing is happening already. Tons of kids starting school in nappies

This is so sad. I'd be interested as well to know where they've pulled the statistics from but part of me wouldn't be surprised if they were accurate.

Reading was and is such a big part of my life and one of the things I most enjoy doing with my kids. I remember my mum taking us to Borders every so often and choosing a new book, making shelves and shelves of beautiful choices! One of the things I love now is sharing books from my childhood with them.

It's depressing to think what long term effects this may have.

I find this insane.
Our kids "read" 3-5 books a day and have done since they were 1....
We were gifted books when they were babies

The government even GIVES you books for FREE...

Deeply depressing stuff

I read to my three every night for years, I loved it and read a huge amount myself. However since school, I don't think they have read a word and they have zero interest in books. Gutted.

Just to add to this good point, a HUGE part of why reading together is so important is to do with the bonding, attachment and wellbeing benefits it brings snuggling up together and letting the child lead the experience - they can pause, go back a page, explore the pictures together, ask questions, do silly voices. Tonies and audio books cant ever replace that human connection (although have their own place!)

My ex hated me doing anything learning related with the kids - reading, kids and cat all snuggled up to listen, letting them have classical music on at night, showing them anything about animals, plants or wildlife, any slightly disguised maths activities, absolutely hated it.

He genuinely appeared to believe that by reading to them, I was stopping them from magically working out what words meant from looking at the pictures. There was also some wittering about me being really big headed if I thought I could do better than a teacher in school and how common/lower class/weird it was to spend time in a child's bedroom just so I could brag about them being able to read instead of spending the time cleaning the kitchen or watching soap operas.

I did wonder whether there was some sort of trauma as I knew his father had seen home learning as best reinforced through the medium of physical violence, but in the end, as he'd suddenly flipped from appearing to be a relatively normal person when DD was born and one day took it upon himself to smash up my bookcase and literally burn my books as they 'are only there to show off', I settled upon Being an Utter Prick as the most appropriate explanation.

I'm pretty certain that had he found somebody else stupid enough to have a kid with him, they'd have arrived at school having never seen a book.

Everyone’s exhausted when they have young kids.

I am one of multiple siblings with a 9 year age gap between eldest and youngest. My parents read to us all the time, provided all the support and encouragement we needed.

Read to my DC from day 1. Bought 10 books from charity shop for £1 rather than magazines in toddler years. Could read most things by age 4. Went to school and was teaching class by day 3. No flex, no pushy parent - just ironic hero at age 5 was Matilda but not rocket science to start early.

Agreed. Single parent in the early years whilst working and studying for a degree. End of day folk find time for what is important to them imho.

My instinct is that parents have once again decided that that job is the school’s job.

I read to my child a lot too. Also didn't learn to read that way. We tried to encourage them to recognise a few words before reception, to no avail. Luckily seems to be thriving on the phonics scheme.

I do, however, think it hugely improved their sentence construction and vocabulary.

Reading to children at an early age makes a massive difference in both their reading ability and their life long attitude to education.

Now there is a myriad of reasons why some parents don't read to their children, maybe they can't afford the books, maybe they cant afford the time, maybe as children they weren't read to or maybe they just can't be bothered. But either way it's not the child's fault but it is the child that suffers the impact.

To take a devil's advocate view on this, the less parents who now read to their children then lower the number of children with an "advantage " and the more level the playing field for all children.

The one comparison I can think of is how when I was at secondary school in the early to mid 00s there was virtually no emphasis on spelling and grammar. It was rarely mentioned and teachers didn't correct it in your work. I wondered if it was seen as old fashioned because word processing software would just do that for you or something.

I remember all the criticism of young people's terrible CVs and how bad their writing was. I thought, well no shit Sherlock, we've just spent 5 years at school with no one bothering about it so why should we suddenly start caring about it in adulthood? We were taught like it didn't matter.

Something's happened to make a lot of people value reading less.

That is awful. I don’t know if you saw the Louis Theroux Manosphere program but it is striking and very scary how so many men project their trauma outwards and onwards at women and children. What an absolutely awful experience for you and your children.

Shocking, isn't it? Plus, literally burning books. How traumatic for @NeverDropYourMooncup and her children.

It's like we're going back to the "hands off" parenting of the 80s and 90s.

Ive never had a bedtime story read to me. Im a 1986 baby. We didn't even have books in the house and barely anyone in my deprived town could read.

Shame we're going back to those times!

I hated bedtime when mine were little. I just wanted them to go to bed and go to sleep. Everyone was tired and ratty, one of mine didn’t sleep so we had crappy nights, and the idea that I was going to spend 15 mins snuggled up doing silly voices was laughable - the smuggery from posters on here is amazing.

That said, we did manage to read to ours - as did nursery and preschool, both of which had story time every day. One is a compulsive reader and the other one is much better now they are of an age to read YA books. The compulsive reader has always been interested in books.

I don’t think reading has fallen out of fashion- it’s just so, so much easier to lob a screen at a kid. It’s like junk food - if you can’t have junk delivered to your door via Just Eats, you’ll cobble together beans on toast which is not a nutritional disaster. Once Just Eats and Deliveroo come along, it’s greasy takeaways and not the slightly healthier home made option.

I distinctly remember that my mum used to buy me these fun workbook things that helped you learn to read and write, from the age of about 3 and a half.
I started school at just turned 4 as I’m a late summer baby and could already write my full name, including long middle name, and read basic sentences.
I’ll have to ask my mum what these books were called. I wonder if they still make things like this for pre-school kids?

I think some parents in general have probably got lazier, but perhaps a lot of it is to do with both parents now having to work full time due to the cost of living? So lack of time for such things?

I do think it’s the increase in hours at work. When my first kid was born we could cover our outgoings with one salary. Now due to pay erosion and cost of living, we max out two full salaries.

In addition, the work we do has changed a lot. Both of us are supposed to have far more outcomes than before. Part of that is seniority but part of it is our mad accelerating work culture.

DH is autistic and ft work is a struggle. The kids are likely autistic. I do read to my kids and they have a meal from scratch, but the consequence of this is no clubs. Other people make different choices. Somethings got to give, though. People are so stretched today.

They do. I also used them with my child! In fact, they sell them in the poundshop for a quid (obviously!) for all different age groups. So easily accessible and take up no time.