A recent survey taken for independent reading charity Booktrust indicated that children spent more time glued to their TV sets than reading. A total of about 1,772 parents and carers of children aged between four and twelve and about 1,318 children were questioned between September 22nd and October 1st this year. Of them, 48% of parents of four and three year olds felt that their kid preferred TV to reading. 57% of parents said that their child spent more time watching DVDs and playing video games than reading.
Of over 1,300 kids aged between 5 to 12 questioned, 54% felt that television was responsible for disturbing their reading habits and 41% blamed it on video games. The percentage of parents reading to their children has dropped so significantly that only one in three parents read along with their children and about 3% of the adults never or very rarely did so.
The research determined that parents blamed tiredness, over work and other demands of children for not being able to read with their children. Another finding of the research was that 41% of mothers of children aged 11 and 12 read with them while only 17% of fathers did so.
