America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009

Family Reading to Young Children

Reading to young children promotes language acquisition and is linked with literacy development and, later on, with achievement in reading comprehension and overall success in school.¹⁰³ The percentage of young children read to daily by a family member is one indicator of how well young children are being prepared for school.

Indicator ED1: Percentage of children ages 3–5 who were read to every day in the last week by a family member by mother's education, selected years 1993–2007

• In 2007, 55 percent of children ages 3–5 who were not yet in kindergarten were read to daily by a family member. This rate is slightly higher than the rate in 1993 (53 percent), but the rate fluctuated in intervening years.
• In 2007, 74 percent of children whose mothers had at least a bachelor's degree were read to every day. In comparison, daily reading occurred for 55 percent of children whose mothers had some college education, 39 percent of children whose mothers had a high school diploma or equivalent but no further education, and 31 percent of children whose mothers had less than a high school diploma.
• Higher percentages of White, non-Hispanic and Asian, non-Hispanic children than either Black, non-Hispanic or Hispanic children were read to every day in 2007. Sixty-seven percent of White, non-Hispanic children, 60 percent of Asian, non-Hispanic children, 35 percent of Black, non-Hispanic children, and 37 percent of Hispanic children were read to every day by a family member.
• The percentage of children in families with incomes 200 percent or more of the poverty level read to daily by a family member (64 percent) was higher than the percentages of children in families with incomes below the poverty level (40 percent) or those in families with incomes 100–199 percent of the poverty level (50 percent) in 2007.
• The percentage of children living with two parents who were read to every day was higher than the percentage of children living with one parent who were read to every day. Fifty-nine percent of children in two-parent households and 43 percent of children living with one parent were read to every day in 2007.
• The percentages of children in the Northeast (59 percent) and Midwest (59 percent) were not statistically different than the percentages of children in the West (54 percent) and South (52 percent) who were read to daily by a family member in 2007.

 ED1 HTML Table