Kids with poor reading and writing will die 26 yrs early

CHILDREN growing up with poor reading and writing skills and living in deprived areas can reduce life expectancy by 26 years, a study shows.

Research by the National Literacy Trust shows the link for the first time by calculating the risk of low literacy levels in each electoral ward in England, based on education, employment and income.

A boy born in Stockton, in CONCERNS Jonathan Douglas Durham, has a life expectancy 26.1 years shorter than one born in North Oxford. And there was a big North-South divide. Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough have some of the worst literacy and lowest life expectancies. Jonathan Douglas, of the NLT, said: “If we are to transform the life chances of the nation’s most disadvantaged children, we must tackle low literacy one community at a time.”