New study commissioned by Egmont Books has identified how reading aloud can minimize the education gap during the COVID-19 lockdown.
A new study commissioned by Egmont has highlighted the benefit of reading aloud to preschoolers and older children, also identifying how it can help minimize the education gap during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Egmont Reading Club was a qualitative study conducted in collaboration with Mumsnet. A total of 42 home-schooling families, with children aged between three and 12, tracked their experience of reading aloud daily over a six-week period (April 17 to May 28, 2020).
The study identified marked improvements in three key areas at the end of the project: attainment, normalisation of reading and well-being.
Reading aloud created opportunities of ‘learning by stealth’ and had a positive impact on both reluctant and engaged readers, according to the study.
Children who read for pleasure typically perform better across all subjects at nursery and school, with parents of children unwilling to engage in remote schooling seeing an improvement in attainment under The Egmont Reading Club.
In addition, the Club also saw reading become an increasingly important routine during the lockdown, rivalling TV and screens as the favoured leisure activity.
The study also found that a commitment to daily reading had a positive impact on the wellbeing of both children and parents. The physical closeness and focused attention inherent in story sharing allowed children to associate being read to with comfort and reassurance.
