Helping children on the road to success with a book

WHAT is the single most important thing you could do to improve your child’s chances of having a successful life?

The answer: buy them a book. And encourage them to read it, of course.

The surprising fact that reading for pleasure is the strongest indicator of a child’s future success came to me in a week which I was spending with my own two daughters.

Ironically I think I saw it on TV, but in any case, it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to learn, with older daughter having brought with her a pile of books that she wanted to read during the school holidays.

An avid reader, she ploughed her way through a series of novels before and after our days out doing things like bowling or visiting relatives.

When it comes to benefits, there are few things better than reading, apparently.

Last year, a study of more than 10,000 young people in the US found that children who read for pleasure tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they reach adolescence too.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Book Trust reported research that whether a child enjoys reading or not is more important to their educational success than anything else, including their family background.

Sadly, due to various reasons, the delights of books are seemingly on the wane among children aged from eight to 18, according to the National Literacy Trust.

Their 2023 findings reported that just two in five children of that age said they enjoyed reading last year, which is as low as the number has been since they first asked the question in 2005.

Fewer than three in 10 children and young people (28%) said they read on a daily basis, matching levels seen in 2022, while just over half (52.9%) said they were encouraged to read by their parents or carers.

There were gains made because of lockdown – perhaps unsurprisingly – when enjoyment of reading went from 47.8% to 55.9% of children and young people.

But the trust said that those levels were not sustained when they went back and asked again in 2021.

The drivers behind this problem are likely complex and varied, but access to books is definitely one of them, with the same body saying last year that almost a million children said they did not have access to a book at home.

But even when books are provided for children, it can feel like there are more distractions around the home that are easier to focus on, whether it is children’s TV which is now almost around the clock, or digital tech – the dreaded ‘screens’.

From games consoles to tablets and mobile phones, it feels like our technology is now more advanced than ever, making it harder for words on pages to compete, unless you are determined to persevere.

While older daughter has been well and truly hooked by the reading bug, younger daughter spends less time with her nose in a book, having had a mobile phone given to her at a younger age (not by me, though I am guilty of buying her a games console). She has developed something of an enjoyment of reading lately, much to my relief, but will spend more time looking at her phone when given the choice.

I doubt that being forced to read would help her to develop a love of the habit, and it feels like all you can do as a parent is encourage and hope for the best.

So I was pleased when during Easter that both my offspring chose books as their present as an alternative to chocolate, which I knew they would get in plentiful supply from others.

But making time for them to read is the challenge, though it is one which offers the greatest of rewards.