Boys falling further behind girls in reading amid lockdown
● Research findings prompt fears that lads could be ‘at risk of losing out’
Boys have fallen further behind girls at reading regularly and enjoying it during lockdown, a study suggests.
The gender gap in the number of children who say they take pleasure in reading and who read daily appears to have widened, prompting fears that boys could be at “risk of losing out” due to the pandemic.
Greater access to audiobooks at school and home may help re-engage boys with literacy, the report from the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and Puffin, the children’s book publisher, says, as findings suggest they are more popular with boys.
Fiona Evans, director of schools programmes at the NLT, has called for more schools to introduce “audio libraries” and for fathers and grandfathers to be role models to encourage reading among boys.
The research, based on surveys of children aged eight to 18 in the UK before and during lockdown, found more girls and boys have been readingdailyandhavesaidtheyare enjoying reading at home.
But the reading enjoyment gap between boys and girls has increased fivefold, from just over a two percentage point difference at the start of 2020 to an 11.5 percentage point difference during lockdown. Sixty per cent of girls said they enjoyed reading during lockdown, compared with 48.9 per cent before, but only 48.7 per cent of boys said they enjoyed reading amid the pandemic, compared with 46.6 per cent pre-lockdown.
More girls than boys said they read daily in their free time before the lockdown and this trend has continued, with the gap between boys and girls in terms of their daily reading widening in the past months.
“It remains to be seen whether these changes are sustained or whether a return to school and a degree of known normality will help boys catch up,” the report concludes.
But slightly more boys (25 per cent) than girls (22.4 per cent) said they had listened to audiobooks more during lockdown and more than half of these boys said audiobooks had made them more interested in reading.
The “cool factor” of audiobooks is likely to have played a part with boys, Ms Evans said, as they can listen on their phone with headphones and do not have to share what they have chosen to read.
Audiobooks that are narrated by well known actors can also help encourage boys to read, she added.
The survey also found that nearly three in five children said reading has made them feel better during lockdown.