How would you solve the growing reading crisis?

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My toddler is napping and I've ended up watching Vanessa. They have had a segment about who should be teaching children to read. They glanced over multiple issues and didn't state which studies they were talking about. But it got me thinking about the what the solution actually is.

Rates of older children reading for enjoyment is at an all time low. Similar story with the number of parents who are reading regularly to their younger children. Children are starting school not know how to turn pages of books. Screen time is often cited as the problem and there are studies showing the amount of screen time children are receiving can be associated to socioeconomic status.

So how would you try and fix this? Or do we just accept it?

That's awful.

Totally agree with you, btw.

I think as with everything part of this is the state of the economy. Most families need two parents working full time, so DC need to be in childcare long hours from the end of Mums maternity leave. It can be hard to fit in everything in in an hour when everyone is hungry, over tired and needs to be back at school/nursery for 7.30 am. The curriculum likely plays a part too. Too much pressure in EYFS and KS1 which makes reading into a chore.

I couldn't agree more @Burntt - your circumstances are not the 'normal' ones that I think the OP meant. You're in survival mode and doing what's necessary to survive. At a rather lesser level, I was there too for a long time.

I hope you get some support somehow. Your current situation is too much for any one person to thrive in.

Pads should be limited, for use in emergencies or for an hour or two a day at the most. I would go to bed and read for hours.

We need another “Harry potter” like phenomenon to get children into reading again. Lots of books aimed at children are a bit meh, compared with what was available back in the 1990’s. They can read the old books of course but unless all their friends are doing it and talking about it the motivation is low.

There is a lot of dystopian series which are good but pitched for an older age group.

Working in a primary school, I can say that it not pearl clutching to say reading for pleasure is going down. My colleagues and I have noticed that attention span, familiarity with books, imaginative ideas etc etc is decreasing, and it is not always tied to people’s socio- economic status.

I know I'll get flamed for this (I should put it on the unpopular opinions thread!) but I truly believe parenting classes should be compulsory.

I totally disagree that it's scaremongering nonsense. The difference in literacy between when I started teaching 15 years ago is vast. Yes, enjoyment in reading is at an all time low.

Attention span is considerably worse, as are inference skills and delayed gratification.

Interesting point about previous low expectations in special schools. There are also many medical advancements that mean children who would have historically benefitted from a special needs school are now being placed in a mainstream classroom, to their detriment.

I think it's deservedly a pearl-clutching issue!

The difference in literacy between when I started teaching 15 years ago is vast

This isn’t backed up statistically.

Literacy levels are higher.

As a society, we continue supporting libraries, we celebrate books and reading and authors and poets.

As adults we talk about the books we're enjoying reading at the moment or not enjoying! Or what's made us angry in a book recently, what's interested us, what we've learned. I do this - it could be a story that's moved me, it could be a non-fiction book about an issue, all sorts. And we model reading - we read on trains and in waiting rooms. We talk about our favourite authors, we display real books that we've read or intend to read on our bookshelves. We gift books to children in our lives - be they nephews or neighbours.

As parents, we read with and to our children, we listen to them read. We read our own books in front of them and talk about them (as above!). We take them to age appropriate literary festivals or book reading events or storytelling events at the local library. We visit the library monthly to look through books and pick some to take home. We read bed time stories, we make up our own stories, we play story telling games.

We listen to audiobooks, we make space for book shelves in their bedrooms, we ask them about their books and favourite writers. We pay attention to who they are and what floats their boat. One of my boys has always preferred non fiction so he's read the Guinness Book of Records, space facts, and now he's a teen it's sports autobiographies. The other reads the books my Dad and brothers recommend to him - Terry Pratchett etc.

At our primary school as a Governor we've supported the staff to really work at nurturing a love of reading because we're in a community where it's not the norm. That's included really inspiring and exciting sessions with authors, really making sure that the class books are brilliant and relevant and exciting. It's not the same old same old. It's made a huge difference in the last decade.

Its interesting to hear a teachers perspective on this. What age group do you teach?

Reading is a complex skill which I took for granted a young woman. Its somethig which came to me without effort, just as some people can play a musical instrument or ice skate. I more or less grew up in my local library and read avidly from an early age. My parents did nothing to encourage me but my grandmother was a great reader and had hundreds of books. It was not surprising that I chose to become a librarian.

The way in which librarianship as a profession and reading as an activity have declined in this country is sad. I can remember when libraries were open until 9pm. We served all sections of the community from students to children. We held some kind of children's activity every two weeks. Libraries began to decline with the funding cuts of the late 1970s-1980s. The internet was opening up and local government funding was in crisis.

I’d go a step further. Tablets shouldn’t be given to children at all to use.

Mine has an absolute love of reading...
We read lots as a baby, and actually asked people to give me their favourite children's book as part of my hen party....
Books have always been integral- having snuggles on the sofa- a book, going out to dinner often read a book or 6 at the table... At a hotel read a book by the pool
I think access to lots of books is key, and not letting them have access to a phone/iPad. We also didn't watch kids TV and only let her watch things with conversation- masterchef, Saturday kitchen, or someone reading a story... She is 5 and she will read all kinds with little help- but it takes a lot of effort from day 1....

Read to them at home, model reading and being read to, keep them off the screens.

I love to read and I actually love being read to as well. Sometimes if I’m really tired and don’t fancy reading my book I get DH to read me a chapter in bed, it’s actually so relaxing.

We picked a school that was a bit further out and is slightly inconvenient to get to because they are low technology. The homework isn’t on an app, they don’t use computers too much outside of ICT. I think schools saying no/low screen time and then having homework ect on apps is pretty hypocritical.

I also think we need better dyslexia support. I am dyslexic and I’m pretty sure my son is too, he is pretty fortunate in the fact that I can help him and support him at home in tandem with his help at school. I think the school do a pretty good job, but in his class there’s a lot of kids who need extra help so he kind of gets left behind a little. They really need better SEN funding I think that’s the root cause of many of the current issues in education.

Should we go back to wax tablets and abaci? Or accept that times change?

It's tech and ipads/tablets/phones specifically. They should be banned for kids or come with a health warning.

The best thing new parents can do now is never introduce them.

Put the TV on instead when you need to gst on with things and put on 90s type cartoons.

Once you've introduced an ipad you can't take it back or at least you can't take it back without a struggle.

Advantaged children of the future will be the ones who lived a fairly tech free lifestyle until they reached senior school because their brains will have developed normally.

DGS is 2, he adores books. He has been read to since the day he came home from hospital. He doesn’t have screen time on a regular basis, the only things he’s allowed to watch are the adaptations of the Julia Donaldson books, that are on iplayer, and even then it’s less than once a week. Now the Summer is coming he probably won’t watch them at all.

I love reading, so I read to our two from a very young age and they still like reading for pleasure now. DS1 is a soldier so some of the younger soldiers do think it’s a bit strange when he’s got his head stuck in a book when they’re away.

You can't force people to read to their children, or help them read, in the past only children who wanted to read learned and we may be going back to that. Some people don't even potty train their children now. They don't see it as a great thing that children have the opportunity to learn to read and write and of course these days everything is someone else's problem!

I read daily, as do my dds. My dsis only reads on holiday and dn never reads - both are on devices constantly.

Obviously this is a snapshot but it is learnt behaviour - if parents aren't interested in reading themselves then they won't place the same importance on it as readers do. I'm not sure how you can make people who aren't interested pass that interest on to their dc.

You can tell the people who read for pleasure though, often improved spelling and vocabulary for one

And in terms of modelling reading for me it's mostly journal articles and medical books .. my husband reads sports biographies.... And she knows reading medical notes is integral to my job. But we discuss interesting things we have read even if it's a change in education theory, or a change in the way that ai may help medical practice

Have a TA in every reception and Yr 1 class that can listen to readers every afternoon. Fund TA's for children with SEN more easily so the general TA doesn't end up being sucked into that role.

Test every child that is still struggling with reading at 7/8 for dyslexia. ASD and ADHD number might have 'exploded' - but so have dyslexia numbers. But how many kids are not getting picked up till much later, if at all?

High school, without sixth form, so 11-16.

My subject is English and I have senior leadership responsibility for literacy and personal development. So quite a lot of experience with this!

I find it fascinating. I think reading needs to become habitual. I don't know if it will ever win when we're all so addicted to smartphones, which are literally designed to keep our attention.

I'd definitely build a culture around it- library trips, story telling, reading for power (statistics show it's linked to higher earnings, longer life expectancy etc)

I appreciate the challenges - I'm from a family that doesn't read, but they did value education. I think that makes a difference!

I volunteered in a library in one of the poorest postcodes. It wasn't massive, but when it was threatened with closure we literally had to count people coming in to submit. Over two days I counted 17 people. It was a very white, deprived area with high rates of child poverty and a high number of children under 5. The people did not see a need for the service. It's up to you to believe it or not.

Yes we should bring back the abacus. Times changing is not an argument when outcomes of that change are demonstrably worse.