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/

I completely agree with you that children shouldn't have to suffer because the adult that brought them into this world is unable to afford books, or is too tired, stressed or can't be bothered.

But the reality is that there will always be such parents. So to play devils advocate, maybe a different solution would be to discourage those parents who do read to their children from doing so, in order to create a fairer and more level playing field.

I hope this was tongue in cheek?! How about let all kids get fat so that the fat kids don't feel bad about themselves? How about everyone drinks more alcohol so that alcoholics don't feel any shame!

Lol, thats hilarious

well there are too many children starting school who try to swipe a book, surely that tells you everything

it is up to the parents to ensure their child is familiar with reading and books before entering school

if their childminding setting covers it adequately, great, job done - if it doesn’t for whatever reason instead of moaning “it shouldn’t be my job” you fill the gaps as the parent - surely - as the parents the buck stops either you

Well all children entering school have had at least 18 months of pre school, so they have been read to. It’s fastidious to pretend they haven’t.

swiping things isn’t related to unfamiliarity of the product they are swiping, it’s just copying behaviour, as is an important developmental stage for children.
my children used to try and change tv channel by swiping, they didn’t have tablets.

1000% this.

I got in to the habit of reading to my DD from when she was a few weeks old, mianly so the family had a set time to sit together and rest.

As a toddler, no matter how much of a shit show the day was, we had that reading time to just be and connect. We read all the Paddington Series.

My daugther is 9 next month and we still read to her most nights. We are working our way through Mallory Towers. When my husband is home he still comes and sits with us whilst we read. She has a Yoto and we record the chapters we read and she plays them back to help her sleep.

There's many things that I fall short on, she does get too much screen time, I'm useless at helping with Spellings... but her love of reading is something I'll always be proud of and I hope to carry on reading to her for as long as she will let me!

As I said I was playing Devils Advocate. But the question we have to ask ourselves, isn't that what is actually happening?

You can see it on this post - the lamenting of the lack of reading to your children is another stick to beat up low income parents etc.

No - having children comes with a responsibility towards them and their futures.

Why aren’t more adults putting a tiny bit of thought into bringing another human into this world and being realistic if they can cover the basics?

They are, aren't they, though? Isn't that part of why the birthrate is tanking. People are thinking a lot about parenting and deciding to give it a swerve.

Maybe only 10-20% of us are cut out to be 'suitable' parents (and tbh I'm not convinced I'd necessarily include myself in that number, having given it a go twice). My parenting definitely verges on the mediocre a lot of the time.

But what happens if only 10-20% of us have kids?

This is what is strange about today’s attitude to parenting.

A child can’t use a book and there has to be some convoluted explanation rather than the obvious one.

At 4/5 they should know how to turn a page. If they don’t that is shameful parenting.

It’s odd how some now think their child’s entire development is someone else’s responsibility. And they will fight tooth and nail to prove it rather than spend the time and work helping their own child and admitting they were lazy and dropped a bollock.

I think there's a large element of this. Some parents won't care, but others know what they should be doing 'in theory' regarding reading, playing with their kids, potty-training and eating together as a family but are just too exhausted to translate it into practice.

What impact would more time/a slower pace of life have? Well, completely anecdotal from a study of one (I'm between jobs at the moment so technically 'unemployed' for the past few months), having more time and less/no work stress has enabled me to connect much more with my kids. I make more home-made meals, we eat together at the table most nights rather than in front of the TV, and reading to both children is now almost every night rather than a couple of times a week. If it's not raining, we come home from school via the park or playground. And yes, I have more energy and headspace to play games with my children. My phone and screen usage has decreased significantly and I've realised what an energy drain spending hours every day staring at a computer and stressed about deadlines and targets is. But the reality is that giving up work or reducing hours is not a long-term option for most of us.

Who said 4/5 year olds don’t know how to turn a page? That wasn’t what the article was about. No one has suggested they can’t turn pages.

Yes the ones choosing not to bring children into the world knowing they couldn’t raise them as things stand are more likely the ones who would make sure their children were school ready perhaps?

Which leads to a greater proportion of children starting school unprepared because their poor parents didn’t think ahead?

What happens if only 10 to 20% of us have children.

Well for a start the population will decline. This will take a generation to clear through the issues this will create such as covering the pension burden for example requiring older people to sell their homes to pay for their underfunded pensions etc.

However the upside will be a massive environmental improvement- less people means less CO2, less plastics, less all environmental damage.

It will also mean that there are more natural resources to share amongst fewer people. Less pressure on infrastructure (water, roads etc). And companies will have to pay higher wages to attract the fewer workers (see what happened to farm workers wages and conditions after the Black Death). But in short fewer people will create better economic conditions for those fewer people.

This is what has been happening in Japan where they have gone through about 30 years of stagnation dealing with an ageing population but are now starting to come out the other side with a stronger economy and lower environmental impact.

When I started primary school in the 80s, I couldn't read and I doubt any of my friends could. I don't actually recall my parents ever reading to me either. In terms of learning to read and write, most of us were fast learners and my English skills were good throughout school. Some kids are not crazy about books!

Reading is the one time mine would sit down and be quiet (within reason), I cannot imagine parenting without reading for this one selfish reason.

If everyone was required to prove that they'd thought ahead before having children instead of just 'winging it', the birth-rate would probably be even more woeful than it already is 😆.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do think society needs to change to make it easier and more fun for parents to 'parent well'. It shouldn't be this hard, really, and most parents want to do the best for their kids.

I read to my children every night throughout their early years I really enjoyed it, we especially liked The Magic Faraway Tree (which has now been made into a film). Both my children (and I) loved this bedtime ritual (or in fact any time they wanted). I don’t remember ever being read to by my parents though.

This is great…. in Japan.

But in Europe it is the middle classes (ie those likely to be paying the most tax) who are swerving parenthood. Otoh those who are frankly likely to be “takers” are continuing to have high birth rates.The figures for Germany for example are frightening. There is no way that they will be able to sustain their current and growing benefits bill.

How does this connect to reading? Well, if you perpetuate and tolerate a underclass with poor literacy and no inclination or ability to participate economically then obviously you have a problem. A big problem.

Yes- I actually don’t think it’s encouraged to try and teach children phonics etc before they start school as often it isn’t taught correctly.

I do imagine there is a decline in parents reading to children but it doesn’t necessarily link to a reduction of those who can read before they start school.

I am a teacher myself, reading is a huge part of our daily life, but my children can’t learn via sight alone. They learned using phonics when they started school.

I've officially reached the point where I can't tell if this post is satire.

On a recent thread about lack of school readiness, one poster said nurseries need to accept some of the blame! Nursery staff are there to look after children, not parent them.

I agree that it's a big problem. I disagree that this is what could happen and instead believe that it is already happening.

On their phones and not too bothered because they feel the kids will read at school.

I watched an interesting documentary on these kind of devices. They invented some words and used them in a story they made up. The story explained what the made up words meant. They had two randomly assigned groups of children listening to the stories throughout the week, one was being read the stories by a parent (with no additions) and one was being read them by a Tonie type device. The children were asked to give the meaning of the words at the end of the week. The Tonie children's recall of the words was shockingly bad compared to those had been read to by caregivers- there was just not the same kind of engagement required to learn language that way. I do worry some parents might think they are a substitute for reading to children themselves.

When we were kids we had a record player. My dad would buy us records with stories on them - and crucially the records came with a book of the story. So we listened to the record and read the book at the same time. If the Tonie boxes had similar it would be great.