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Children see readers as 'geeky and lonely'

17.03.08 Graeme Neill

Children believe that readers are clever and successful, but also that they are geeky, boring and lonely, according to Kate Wilson, group m.d. of Scholastic. In a presentation to publishers last week, Wilson said that children "perceive reading as a solitary activity and do not often talk about books or reading to other children or adults".

Wilson also said that children in England have the most books of their own at home compared to any other country. According to research Wilson presented, 23% of 10-year-olds said that they owned more than 200 books. She said that the majority of children read at least once or twice a week. "Girls read more than boys and enjoy it more, while children tend to read for pleasure less when they get to secondary school."

Wilson said that children are becoming more sophisticated users of digital media, particularly the internet. Most of their entertainment consumption is via multi-tasking. "Children will listen to music and read at the same time," she said.

However, Wilson added that multi-tasking had a knock on effect on a child's reading ability. "Reading attainment is lower among children who own their own televisions, play computer games for three plus hours a day and who read stories and articles on the internet."

Wilson also revealed where books lay among children's reading preferences. Magazines were the most popular thing to read and fiction came fifth in a survey of what children read more than once a month. Non-fiction was eighth and poetry was last in tenth place.

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By Kate Wilson

Hmm. This is an disapointingly gloomy take on what I said. This was intended to be a presentation that gave attendees to the Books and the Consumer conference a sense of the pressures on children's book reading. However, I also emphasised that children are enthusiastic readers and discriminating consumers of many different kinds of reading material. 71% of children identified themselves as 'readers' in the NLT survey I quoted in which children thought of 'readers' as clever and likely to do well as well as geeky and nerdy. I also don't think that there's any survey that suggests that it's entertainment multi-tasking that impacts children's reading ability or attitude. If you are interested in what I actually said, then please email me at kwilson@scholastic.co.uk and I'll send you the presentation.

17 Mar 08 17:20

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