Nursery World - Reading to Children

With fewer parents reading to their children, Penny Tassoni explains how practitioners can best share books

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Recent statistics indicate that fewer parents are reading to their children. Since 2013, the number of parents who share books with their pre-schoolers has dropped by nearly a fifth to 51 per cent. In some ways, this is unsurprising. The increased use of tablets means that children are often sitting quietly and entertaining themselves in situations where previously adults might have read to them.

This significant change in parenting practice means early years settings cannot assume that all children will have a bedtime story or that a child will have discovered the magic of books. While planning for play and individual children’s interests is now an accepted part of early years practice, perhaps the time has also come to include planned opportunities for sharing books.

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