This report shows that what parents say, and what they do, can have a considerable impact on children’s and young people’s reading enjoyment, confidence and attainment.
It explores who in the family encourages young people to read and who in the family is seen reading. It also outlines how each of these relate to young people’s reading enjoyment, attitudes and behaviour as well as reading attainment.
A significant area of concern highlighted by the report is that fathers are far less likely to support their children’s reading. Far fewer fathers than mothers encourage their children to read, with one in three fathers giving no reading encouragement to their children at all.
Nearly 21,000 8 to 16-year-olds from 128 schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales participated in our second annual literacy survey1 at the end of November/December 2011.