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’m not sure that’s really the purpose of Tonies, they’re more similar to a podcast, or calming nighttime music. Absolutely something to listen to, I don’t think they really claim to be like books or reading

I am a big fan of Tonie boxes and Yoto players and any alternatives to screens, but some of the Julia Donaldson ones are awful: the reading of the Gruffalo makes me wince.

Audio books have their place; I have dyslexic children that find reading hard work, but they have grown up with books and reading being a normal part of life. Audio books were particularly good around y5-6 at opening up stories that they wouldn't read themselves in novels that get a bit sloggy to read aloud. I read the first few Harry Potter books to DS2 using the beautiful illustrated versions, but I delagated The Order of the Pheonix onwards to Steven Fry

My tip for low energy/ time bedtime reading is poetry. Short but often fun and a more varied use of language. Win, win, win!

My mum didn’t read to me as a child, but luckily I did have books available, learned to read in school, and spent a lot of my free time at home reading from a young age.

But there was nothing else to do at home. It was the 80s/90s. No Internet, iPads etc.

With the amount of input my mum gave me, if I was a child now I would probably be really struggling.

This is sad. I suppose there are a multitude of reasons why parents may not read to their children.
There are many, many children who don't own a single book - poverty is a factor (although there are quite a few charities that supply books to children in poor circumstances), perhaps parents don't always actually have the reading skills to read to their children. I also suspect that there are a large proportion of adults who were never read to as children themselves, so they may not understand the joy that children get from a book with their parent at bedtime. Probably the reliance on tablets and phones now too.
As a teacher, it's incredibly sad. I can always spot children who don't read across the subjects. Not only are reading skills poor, but imagination is also affected. When it comes to doing a piece of writing, the amount of children who come up with ideas to write about Minecraft, etc is astonishing. I'm sure other teachers will have noticed this.
They get so much from it, and it's so easy to just incorporate into a bedtime routine. In my house, there's bath time, teeth brushed, then story time before he goes to sleep. It doesn't take long and I actually love that little bit of peaceful time together.

I read to all four of mine when they were little, got a house full of books,

However only 2 out of the 4 read fiction for pleasure. The two that don’t hate it.

They both are as bright and intelligent as the two that do, I can only think that my love of reading and a wider interest in the world has inspired them to further their own interests. They both read and research things online, they just don’t read fiction.

Having said that my own grandchildren 7 and under are not encouraged to read either, they basically take themselves to bed, often with a tablet. It’s such a shame.

times are a changing

It's common to have multiple generations of undiagnosed SENs such as dyslexia and/ or a lack of family culture of reading. 50+ years ago, you could leave school with minimal literacy skills and get a manual job where literacy didn't greatly matter. Most jobs have become more technical and many "entry level" standards have risen. Unfortunately family cultures where education and literacy aren't vaued often haven't caught up with social/ economic changes.

The average reading age in the UK is 9 years. The likes of The Sun/ Mirror are pitched at this level as are resources such as NHS information. There are many people (barely) functioning under this level due to the nature of averages.

There are a lot of families ill-equiped to support their children with reading, and it's sad when another generation rolls round with that cycle continuing.

There are also families that don't prioritise their children's needs within their means. Unfortunately they are not rare.

Recently I read that fewer children see their parents reading a book. This affects the way that even those who can read approach a book. It is not a common choice for those children.

These statistics are so sad. World Book Day really helped to address this problem until it morphed into World Dressing Up Day:

https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/book-ownership-in-2024/#:~:text=Key%20findings,Regional%20differences%20in%20book%20ownership

Just spent some time with siblings kid there may be some underlying problem - but nothing my older kids aren't diagonsed with or on path way to - kids nowhere near any diagaonstic pathway but it's an endless excuse for behavior.

Kid doesn't like books so that's it - it repeated in their presence as an immutable fact. Given a screen to keep them quite every opportunity.

When that was my children with that attitude because reading was hard for them I spent years and limited money enticing them back to books.

I got told it was easier for me - I had three kids much less money was on my own a lot as DH had to work way and no-one would ever have the kids for us even in emergencies - whereas they get a lot of babysitting. Difference is I realised school wasn't going to crack it without home support so our kids got that.

Sibling grew up in same house I did with parents that read and house full of books but isn't taking that appraoch with theirs - it's endless screens - and my DC did have screen young than ideal often expressed on here but they also had books and walks and toys as well.