Publishing Company Blog | Should we be worried about the decline of children's reading?

Children's e-books have been slow to take off, with fewer opportunites to read as gaming, films and music fill household screens. Alison Egmont, consumer insight director at Egmont Publishing, looks at the importance of reading for pleasure

According to a survey of 35,000 8 – 16 year olds by The National Literacy Trust, 40% of children read daily in 2005, reducing to 30% by 2011 and by a further 2% the following year.

Today's children's lives don't naturally have space for reading. They grow up with a continuous stream of entertainment – endless TV channels, digital devices and on-demand access.

Our research programme, which includes following 12 families around the UK as well as talking to wider numbers of parents and to school teachers, shows that for most children screen time is habitual. They are often over-stimulated by screens, rarely offline; some carry a device 24/7. Children flit from one form of entertainment to another and media meshing (using multiple devices simultaneously) is the norm. Childwise data tells us that when online, 39% of children say they also watch TV, 34% use a phone to talk or text and 12% say they read a book.

Our study found only 1/3 of families feel they have a reasonable amount of free time and some parents feel guilty that they have little time with their children. But, because parents are so busy, they expect their children to be busy too and screen time often fills the gap:

"I let him play DS when I think he will get bored waiting somewhere. Also he plays after school every day." Mum to boy, age 7.

Parents feel obligated to buy new technology to ensure their children 'keep up' and it seems money is no object, even in financially challenged homes. So, where children might have picked up a book, now screens fill their time. The result is that those moments where reading took root and flourished are diminishing.

"If I can't get to sleep, I'll wind down by playing Mario Bros on my DS in bed" – girl, age 13.

Children need to recover the lost art of being still – having a still mind, quiet and reflective moments, time off-line, to allow sustained concentration on a story. In this busy screen dominated environment many children are simply not in the habit of reading and find a book and long form text off putting. That includes reading on e-readers.

Children's e-reading has been much slower to take off than adults. Last year 4.5% of children's books sold were eBooks, compared with 18% for adults'. We know around half of UK households now have a tablet or e-reader – yet they are used mainly for gaming, films and music, not reading.

Yet parents do still value reading and over half say their child loves story time. Parents say they would like their children to read more, 53% wish they had more time for reading with their child and 28% feel guilty that they don't read to them more. Although screen time may be affecting children's reading time at home, 81% of teachers don't think it is an insurmountable problem.

Clearly reading is still valued and our research has observed families where reading flourishes, where children are avid gamers and readers, and time for reading is protected. Technological progress will continue and it offers us amazing opportunities, but how do we ensure it doesn't fill every waking moment? How do we preserve the art of reading for pleasure? Do we even want to? I say a resounding yes, because reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child's success academically, more than social background or parents' education.

Children who read for pleasure have increased concentration, memory, confidence, greater self-esteem and general knowledge. Reading builds empathy, improves imagination and language development. These are important and relevant benefits, whether we live in a digital or analogue world.

Alison David is the consumer insight director at Egmont Publishing. Chapter 3 of the Reading Street study into the decline of children's reading for pleasure has been published today.

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