We, at Tidy Books, are behind any campaign that encourages parents to read to their children. Our commitment goes further than that; grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, older children reading to siblings, all these people can have a positive effect on a child’s reading.
Ladybird have a campaign focusing on dads, and encouraging them to read to their children. This has been launched around Father’s Day, with backing from TV celebrity, Richard Hammond, who himself reads regularly to his two daughters, and there are some great prizes still up for grabs.
“I love reading with my children and think Ladybird’s Reading Dads campaign is a great way to encourage dads to enjoy sharing a book with their kids.” The popular Top Gear presenter enthused.
The campaign was also ran at a similar time last year, and Ladybird were inspired to start such an initiative, as the National Year of Reading had unearthed figures that suggested only 42% of dads read to their children, compared to 76% of mothers.
These figures were disappointing, and also surprising as it was expecting many dads to be found responsible for the bedtime routine, a routine commonly likely to include reading.
But obviously reading is not exclusive to any time of the day, or to any set of people, but from the research, it is possible to see why it is good to focus on dads.
The National Literacy Trust offers some great reasoning as to why dads should be reading to their kids, going as far as to suggest that children whom have benefited from having a father read to them, can enhance their achievements in all sorts of areas, through added confidence and self-esteem.
They say shared reading can;
Increase enjoyment of reading and better literacy skills
Help attain better exam results
Improve school attendance and behaviour
Produce higher quality of later relationships
Bring better mental health
Increase self-esteem
There are also some great tips on their website, of where to start, and how that reading does not have to be reserved for books. If a child can be engaged in reading, road signs or menus will do.
All we know is that reading to children is a great experience, and no matter what any research finds, no child should miss out on being read to, and no parent should really miss out either.
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