In more than a third of families nationwide, parents rarely or never read to their one to eight-year-old children. This particularly applies to mothers and fathers who have a low level of education and who were rarely read to as children, reported Simone Ehmig, head of the Reading Foundation’s Institute for Reading and Media Research, at the presentation of the reading monitor on Wednesday in Berlin. Anyone who was read to as a child is very likely to read to their children as well – regardless of their level of education.
For the representative study, 833 parents were interviewed in person in May and June. It wasn’t just about reading texts out loud, but also, especially for small children, looking at picture books together and telling stories about the pictures. The number of parents who rarely or never read aloud has fallen from around 40 percent in the previous year to over 36 percent, said Ehmig from the Mainz-based foundation. “But we can’t give the all-clear.”
The earlier it is read, the better
The study, which was commissioned by the Reading Foundation together with the Deutsche Bahn Foundation and the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, produced two central movements, but they were in opposite directions. Compared to the previous year, there is a higher proportion of parents who do not read to their young children among one-year-olds. “That’s very worrying, because the earlier I start, the sooner reading is part of my life.”
For five and six-year-olds, however, more parents are involved as readers. “There is still a far too high proportion of children to whom their parents do not read or no longer read,” warned the expert. This is particularly problematic for girls and boys during the transition to school. “Learning to read is often difficult for children at the beginning; learning to read often leads to frustration for children.” This makes it all the more important for parents and children to have a shared reading experience.
The head of the Reading Foundation’s Institute for Reading and Media Research therefore wishes that reading and reading aloud would not be too idealized by society. Parents who rarely read aloud often justified this by saying that they are not good readers and cannot pretend to listen to children’s stories. “They’re putting too much pressure on themselves.”
The foundation has also tried to find out how to motivate parents to read aloud. Some of the tips: Give books to parents who don’t read, improve lending options in schools and daycare centers, and stimulate children’s interest in books through activities such as reading day. Because they are the key: “In families where reading is rarely done, the study shows that the initiative to read aloud comes from the children in 50 percent of cases,” says Ehmig.
