Reading – Reading Foundation: Almost one in five children is never read to – Society

Mainz (dpa) – Little children are being read to a little more again – and yet the overall result of a study by the Reading Foundation is alarming: nationwide, around a third of parents never or only rarely read together with their one to eight-year-old children. 18 percent said they never read to their children.

“Reading aloud is not just ‘nice to have’, but important for children’s development,” explained Simone Ehmig, head of the Reading Foundation’s Institute for Reading and Media Research, on the occasion of the presentation of the reading monitor in Mainz. “If children are read to regularly, they have better educational opportunities.”

After all: Corona-era trend stopped

For the representative study, 815 parents of one to eight-year-old children were surveyed about their reading behavior from mid-May to mid-June. Afterwards, the very young and children starting school are particularly affected by the fact that they are rarely read to at home. Not only the first early phase, but especially the second phase, is extremely important in order to lay the foundations for starting school and to maintain and promote reading motivation in primary school age, emphasized Ehmig.

Overall, parents are turning to children’s books again, as they did during the Corona pandemic, when the level fell. According to the information, in 2024 67.7 percent of parents read to their children at least “several times a week”, in 2022 it was only 61.3 percent.

Parents with lower levels of education read less

Parents with less formal education in particular read less than the average of all parents, as shown in the study commissioned by the Reading Foundation together with the Deutsche Bahn Foundation and the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. For more than a third (34 percent) this happens less often than once a week. This is evident both in families with and without a migration background, reported the head of the Institute for Reading and Media Research.

29 percent of the parents surveyed said they had a maximum of ten children’s books in their household. According to their own statements in the survey, mothers and fathers who do not read aloud can rarely assess whether their child has difficulty learning to read or not.

Positive reading experiences are passed on

On the other hand, 74 percent of parents who used to be read to themselves read to their own children at least several times a week – regardless of educational background, Ehmig said of another result of the study. This shows that your own positive reading experiences are very likely to be passed on to the next generation.

The Reading Foundation recommends not only combining reading aloud with children’s books, but also using the options that smartphones and tablets offer. The expert emphasized that printed books and digital media should not be played off against each other. Children should definitely be able to discover that digital media is not just for games and videos, but that there are lots of great texts and stories there. According to the results of the study, 43 percent of parents have already used apps for children on their smartphone or tablet, 26 percent of them for reading aloud. “There is great potential there.”

Reasons for parents’ reading behavior

In addition to stress and a lack of time in everyday life, the parents in the study cited stress and a lack of time in everyday life as reasons that prevent them from reading to them: their children do not want to be read to, are too restless or prefer to occupy themselves with other things. Reading aloud not only has a positive effect on the bond between parents and children, it also trains crucial skills for the future, so Ehmig. Children who have positive reading experiences as a result would have an easier time with their own reading and, in general, in all school subjects.

“We have to support parents so that reading to them is fun and not just an additional task in their already stressful everyday life,” said the head of the Reading Foundation’s Institute for Reading and Media Research. There can’t be a perfect setting for reading aloud. “Just trust and try it out.”

© dpa-infocom, dpa:241008-930-254346/1