Reading with Children

Reading every day with very young children (starting at birth) is critical for their both their short- and longer-term language and literacy outcomes. Whether their parents read to them nearly every day is a factor that predicts whether young children will become frequent readers in the middle school years. Frequent readers read books for fun five to seven days a week. Among children ages six through 11 years, frequent readers read twice as many books as those children who read less often.¹

Research has found that family reading behavior varies by family income, race/ethnicity, and children’s age.¹

Family Income. High income parents of children under six are more likely (75 percent) than low-income parents (47 percent) to say that they were told to read aloud to their children from the time they are born.² This information gap may contribute to variations in reading behavior. Children growing up in lower-income families:

• Are read to less often
• Have access to a smaller number of children’s books in their homes
• Develop dramatically smaller vocabularies in the early years
• Have parents who read less often themselves³

Race/Ethnicity. Nationally, as well as in North Carolina, data collected within the past five years reveals that a lower percentage of Hispanic parents report reading to their children every day than do white and black parents. More white parents than black parents report reading to their children every day.⁴ Having access to books that include characters “who look like me” is important for young children’s early literacy.⁵

Children’s Age. For many parents, reading with children begins early. A recent Scholastic survey found:

• 30 percent of parents with children under six say that they began reading to their child when he/she was three months old.
• 75 percent report that they started reading aloud to their child before the age of one year.

Those reading experiences change as children age, however.

• Over half of parents of children under three, and 63 percent of parents of 3-5 year olds read aloud to their children 5-7 days a week.
• Only 38 percent of parents of 6-8 year olds and 17 percent of parents of 9-11 year olds report reading aloud to their children 5-7 times a week.⁶