Reading for pleasure: what does the evidence say? MPs turn to first page of new inquiry
On Tuesday, experts in education and psychology will give evidence on the benefits of children reading for pleasure, as MPs begin a new inquiry on the subject.
Meeting details
The cross-party Education Committee recently launched an inquiry into reading for pleasure. MPs will explore the benefits for children, how schools and early years settings can help to encourage it, and what more the government could be doing to encourage it.
Academic evidence suggests that children who read for pleasure experience rich benefits through greater vocabulary, empathy, mental wellbeing and brain development. Children growing up in poverty who are read to daily at age five are more likely to avoid poverty in adulthood.
During the session, MPs will ask witnesses to set out what academic evidence suggests about the benefits to children of reading for pleasure, and why reading specifically, rather than socializing, doing physical exercise or consuming other forms of culture, brings these benefits.
MPs are likely to explore why and how children can be motivated to read for fun, and some of the possible reasons that the number doing so is declining.
They may also ask what evidence suggests about best practice in schools and early years settings, including how secondary schools and the government can help to promote reading for pleasure to young people.