Why Parents Should Read to Their Kids

I admit, I have The Muppet Christmas Carol to thank for my first exposure to Charles Dickens. But off-screen and years later, it was through our family’s tradition of reading aloud that I first consumed the beloved A Christmas Carol as words on a page. This time, I was the reader, and my children the listeners. In Dickens’s era, the tradition of verbal reading thrived in early Victorian homes with parents and children equally engaged. Now in the 21st century, this sacred ritual has lost its luster.

Literacy experts raised the alarm last year when newly published data showed fewer parents than ever before actually read aloud to their children. A dismal 41 percent of zero- to four-year-olds are read to frequently, down more than 20 percentage points from 2012. Gen Z parents now regard reading as “more a subject to learn than a fun thing to do.” The same data showed that more than one in five boys ages zero to two are never or rarely read to, potentially worsening the gap in readiness between boys and girls entering kindergarten.

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About the Author

Alyssa Blakemore

Alyssa Blakemore is a freelance writer and military spouse currently based in northern Italy.

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I admit, I have The Muppet Christmas Carol to thank for my first exposure to Charles Dickens. But off-screen and years later, it was through our family’s tradition of reading aloud that I first consumed the beloved A Christmas Carol as words on a page. This time, I was the reader, and my children the listeners. In Dickens’s era, the tradition of verbal reading thrived in early Victorian homes with parents and children equally engaged. Now in the 21st century, this sacred ritual has lost its luster.

Literacy experts raised the alarm last year when newly published data showed fewer parents than ever before actually read aloud to their children. A dismal 41 percent of zero- to four-year-olds are read to frequently, down more than 20 percentage points from 2012. Gen Z parents now regard reading as “more a subject to learn than a fun thing to do.” The same data showed that more than one in five boys ages zero to two are never or rarely read to, potentially worsening the gap in readiness between boys and girls entering kindergarten.