Today, Scholastic released results from the first-ever Kids & Family Reading Report™, Canadian Edition, a national survey of children ages 6–17 and their parents, that looks at parents' and kids’ attitudes and behaviours around reading books for fun.
This report delves into the five key areas around kids and reading:
The State of Kids & Reading in Canada
- Ninety-one percent of kids ages 6–17 and 97% of parents agree that being a good reader is important for kids' futures.
- On average kids ages 6–17 have read 23 books in the last year and 86% of kids are currently reading or have just finished reading a book for fun.
What Canadian Kids & Parents Want in Books
- On average, families report having 80 books in the home, with frequent readers' homes having 118 books, compared to 61 books in the homes of infrequent readers. (Frequent readers are defined as children who read books for fun 5–7 days a week, whereas infrequent readers read books for fun less than 1 day a week)
- Despite 94% of children agreeing that their favorite books—and the books they are most likely to finish reading (92%)—are the ones they have picked out themselves, almost half (47%) said they have trouble finding books they like, and that percentage jumps to 69% for infrequent readers.
Reading Aloud
- Ninety-three percent of kids ages 6–8 and 87% of parents say they enjoyed read-aloud time, and parents of children ages 0–5 cite reading books aloud, telling stories and talking together as among the most important things parents should do with their children to develop language skills.
- While more than half (61%) of children ages 0–5 are read aloud to 5–7 days per week, the frequency of reading aloud drops significantly after age 5 (41%) and again after age 8 (16%), with 58% of kids ages 6–8 who are no longer read aloud to saying they wanted reading aloud to continue. Among all children who are no longer read aloud to, boys are more likely to say this than girls
Reading in Canadian Schools
- Sixty-five percent of kids ages 6–17 have the chance to read independently during the school day, with 42% saying, "I wish we would do this more often" and 34% saying, "It's one of my favorite parts of the school day."
- Ninety-seven percent of parents agree that every child deserves to have a school library.
Summer Reading
- Most kids ages 6–17 (84%), and even more parents (96%), believe in the value of summer reading and agree that reading books during the summer will help them during the school year.
- Three in four kids (76%) say they really enjoy reading books in the summertime, with just over half of parents (54%) reporting their kids read over the summer without prompting, but 34% of parents say they have to work at encouraging their child to read over the summer.
To download the full report visit: scholastic.ca/readingreport. Hear more about the key findings from the Kids & Family Reading Report, Canadian Edition, in the below video interview with Nancy Pearson, President, Scholastic Canada:
