Coronavirus: schools closed, children at home - worried about your child’s learning? No need to be!

March 30th 2020

Coronavirus is changing our world. There’s so much uncertainty and anxiety; how long will social distancing last, when will the virus peak, when will the children be able to go back to school? Many parents are wondering how to fill the days, keep children occupied, entertained happy and ensure learning continues.

I can share some good news: there is something parents can do for children that helps the situation in multiple ways.  And it is so simple, so joyful and so easy: read aloud to them, every day.  

At Egmont our company purpose is to make every child a proud reader and with an ambition as big as that it’s essential that we know all we can about children’s reading for pleasure. Our research programme and work with families gives us deep insights. As a result we know that the most effective way to encourage children to read for pleasure is to read aloud to them, frequently, and just for the fun of it.  If we can motivate children to read we will be giving them so many advantages, because children who read for pleasure simply do better in life. They do better at school (in all subjects), experience a better sense of wellbeing,  develop their imagination and learn empathy - so important to help them understand how to get on with others, to make emotional connections and to thrive. Reading is a building block for a happy and successful life. 

• Reading aloud to a child is the most effective way to encourage them to read independently
• Reading for Pleasure is more important to a child’s educational success than their parents’ socio economic status
• For 10-16 year olds, the impact of reading for pleasure on progress in vocabulary, maths and spelling is four times greater than if parents have a degree
• Children who read for pleasure daily, or nearly every day, are a year ahead in reading performance versus those who never do

Reading aloud to children brings many more benefits, too. The emotional impact is profound. When reading to a child the implicit message is ‘you matter enough for me to give you my time’. When read to, a child feels loved, secure and a deep sense of wellbeing.  If you have any doubt about that, just cast your mind back to being read to as a child and you will no doubt remember the happiness, the comfort and the feeling of being wrapped in love. Given the extreme situation we are in with Coronavirus, this is immensely valuable to quell children’s anxieties.

As well as happiness, comfort and reassurance, a regular reading routine creates structure and special time together. In turn, this reinforces family ties. Reading is quality time, precious moments for parent/child bonding and an expression of parental love.  As a result it helps to build children’s confidence and resilience, which has a positive impact on well-being and mental health.  I hope you can see how powerful it is!  

Despite all this, many children are not read to by their parents, especially from 8 years old onwards, and few are read to daily in any age group, in fact just 33% of 0-13s are read to daily or nearly every day. 

What’s very interesting is when we talk with parents about reading to children we find that most simply don’t know of the many benefits, and the deep pleasure in store for them, the parents, if they do read aloud to their child. What could be nicer than treasured moments of intimacy with your child, a cuddle, sharing a laugh, going on an adventure together, talking about the story, bonding and showing them how much you love them?  So now, with us all at home and with a lot more time to fill, it’s a perfect opportunity to find 20 minutes once day, or more often than that, to read to the children in your life. 

Amid all this uncertainly there is one thing you can be sure of: that by regularly reading aloud you can make a child feel happy, safe, secure, and you can help them so much with their learning that when they do return to school they’ll have both a flying start academically and a new enthusiasm for reading for themselves.

Alison David is the Consumer Insight Director at Egmont.