It’s especially important that children are given the opportunity to express themselves openly, as well as respect and listen to those around them – and we’ve found that literature and shared reading sessions provide a particularly effective outlet for these things to happen. Quite spectacularly as a result of engaging in shared reading 89% of children in schools across Liverpool said that they were more confident discussing their ideas and opinions as a part of being in a group.

Even more encouraging is the fact that 96% of children agreed that they were more understanding towards the ideas and opinions of other people as a result of shared reading. Absolutely wonderful findings, showing that reading isn’t just about academic education - but emotional development too.

As part of their reading sessions, children in three Liverpool schools we’ve been working in have been discovering the connection between literature and life. In our recent evaluation, 76% of children said that they can relate their life to things they’ve read in books more readily as a result of taking part in sessions.

Our recent evaluation of reading sessions in Liverpool schools has revealed that 80% of children questioned agreed that reading helped them to relax. This is great news – and shows another aspect of reading that is so beneficial to children’s lives.

We have found that engaging in regular shared reading sessions not only makes kids want to read more often but also inspires them to widen their reading horizons – when questioned, 86% of children taking part in shared reading sessions in Liverpool schools said that they enjoyed reading stories and poems that they wouldn’t have normally chosen to read if they were doing so by themselves. Shared reading definitely helps to bring a good variety of literature into children’s personal reading selections.

Our recent evaluation into Get Into Reading in Liverpool schools has brought forth some wonderful results which show that shared reading has a significant impact on children, boosting their enthusiasm for books. A staggering 98% of children said that they enjoyed shared reading sessions – very encouraging for bolstering a passion for reading amongst kids.

One of the most recent studies exploring exactly what wonders reading can do comes from an incredibly prestigious source – and has unearthed some astonishing and really quite heartening results . Research carried out by Oxford University has found that poetry is not just, as John Keats would put it, a Thing of Beauty, but also acts as a comforter, makes us feel better and significantly shapes our sense of self and identity; all factors which most certainly count for a lot. In particular it’s the poems that come from our childhood and early adulthood – and especially those we’ve read so much that we’ve committed them firmly to memory and can recite them off by heart – that offer the most consolation to us; and in this way and others, they contribute to making us who we are. Remarkable stuff indeed. The findings of the Oxford study have been backed up by very similar research from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading which is looking into the relationship between poetry and memory and specifically, the ways that people remember poems that are personally significant to them. Head researcher Dr Clare Rathbone has identified that poetry that is so well known it could almost be part of our DNA is strongly centred in our individual ‘reminiscence bumps’ – the memories that each of us can most readily recall. Such memories are ingrained into our very beings, and such findings are testament to the ability of poetry to eke them out; most certainly they support the incredibly vital work The Reader Organisation does reading and sharing poems with dementia patients.

It’s not so surprising to discover that poems we know inside out through frequent reading and recitation, ones that we cherish and have poured so much meaning – and of ourselves – into should figure so vividly in our minds and memories, but the fact that collections of words and created images are quite so significant that they connect to or entirely supersede other reminiscences and recollections is quite extraordinary in itself. I know I can let major events pass me by without so much as a second thought months or years down the line (and don’t even attempt to test my long-gone learning of history, science or the solar system), but a line, lyric or vision of a scene glimpsed for a moment can remain as crystal clear as when they first occurred or were happened upon. Summarising what I’d suspect is a rather common occurrence when it comes to what our brain retains is Thomas Bailey Aldrich, in a poem short, sweet and succinct enough to be able to easily commit to memory – which is quite handy, considering.

Memory

My mind lets go a thousand things,
Like dates of wars and deaths of kings,
And yet recalls the very hour–
‘Twas noon by yonder village tower,
And on the last blue noon in May–
The wind came briskly up this way,
Crisping the brook beside the road;
Then, pausing here, set down its load
Of pine-scents, and shook listlessly
Two petals from that wild-rose tree.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907)

The study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development found that children who read with their parents every day or even as much as once a week gained significantly higher marks in exams sat at the age of fifteen. On average, regular reading with parents at home equates to a child getting the same amount of academic benefit they would receive from having six months extra schooling. The most prominent effects of reading on a child’s educational attainment are best felt if parents begin reading with their children when they are young – aged four, five, or six – although the highest-achieving students still receive parental encouragement and input when they are teenagers.

And the best news for busy parents is that the amount of time spent reading with children each day need not eat significantly into a busy schedule – you don’t need to spend hours reading (unless of course, you do have lots of spare time) and quality is better than quantity. The report says:

“The good news [is] that it does not require a PhD or unlimited hours for parents to make a difference. In fact, many parent-child activities that are associated with better reading performance among students involve relatively little time and no specialised knowledge.”

The research also comes as a reading project aimed at school children is proving particularly successful. Booked Up, the government-funded initiative ran by Booktrust which aims to provide a free book to every child starting secondary school in the country, is encouraging over half of all students involved to read books more often. During the first four years of the programme, Booked Up has given a free book to over 2.5 million children in England. It has also boosted enthusiasm and passion for reading elsewhere, with pupils who are involved in the scheme visiting local libraries and bookshops on a more regular basis, buying books for themselves or their family and reading material by authors they had not previously come across.

Despite the success of such reading projects and reading aloud in the home, there is still concern that reading for pleasure instead of for academic purposes is being neglected by schoolchildren. A survey by the charity Booktime has found that a staggering 98% of teachers believe children do not read enough for pleasure at home. Also one in  ten parents shy away from reading to their children themselves, preferring instead to play an audiobook. While any contact with literature is great, there is nothing like a direct reading experience and there really is nothing to be scared of when it comes to reading aloud. Given these different findings, there is no better time to start your own personal reading revolution!

A recent report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development showed that school children in the UK rank considerably low when it comes to reading for pleasure, the country being placed 47th out of 65 nations in a table based on the percentage of students who read regularly for enjoyment. According to the PISA in Focus study which examines the results of assessment tests taken by students worldwide in 2009, just over 60% of students from the UK aged fifteen said that they read for pleasure, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines or comics. Emerging at the top were Kazakhstan, Albania, Shanghai-China and Thailand, where more than 90% of pupils of the same age reported reading for the sheer enjoyment of doing so. Not far behind are Indonesia and Peru, on 88% and 86% on the reading for pleasure scale respectively.

The low placement of the UK on the table translates to the country’s teenagers being below average compared to those from other developed countries when it comes to reading for pleasure – the average percentage of 15 year olds who read for fun for at least half-an-hour daily coming out at 63% in the OECD study. Overall, the figures mean that four in ten teens in the UK are not reading for their own personal enjoyment outside of the school gates – which totting up the total, works out at a rather concerning figure. Commenting on the report, Andreas Schleicher from the OECD’s education directorate said:

“Better readers not only perform well in school, they grow up to become adults who use their reading skills to make sense of the world around them and continue learning throughout their lives. But for many students around the world, that cycle appears to have broken.”

Debates could rage on for an age about the reasons why young people here are less attracted to reading than their counterparts from other countries or precisely how to go about raising the reading for pleasure figures, but certainly there is no shortage of great books around – both classic and contemporary – to get teenagers excited about reading. Sometimes all it takes is a little encouragement, as well as someone to share to the reading experience with, to find the reader within a young person. Our ever-growing work with young people has shown that once they begin, they do enjoy reading in their own time – and a significant number find life-changing benefit in it. Although, whether picking up a book is a simple pleasurable pastime or whether the words go much deeper, we hope that our Reading Revolution can reach and affect many more young people – and perhaps help bump that figure a little higher up the table…

Certainly, if sales are anything to go by, then children’s literature is well and truly ruling the roost in the UK book market. Figures from Nielsen BookScan presented at last week’s Bookseller Children’s Conference provided a lot to smile about; in the first half of 2011 up to July the sales of children’s books outperformed all others, overall sales coming out at a staggering £143 million. Pre-school books/picture books and children’s general non-fiction performed particularly well, with both categories upping their sales by 6% from the previous year. It appears that in the time of recession, children’s reading is prioritised by many parents; a particular point of interest being that a select group of older books are the ones being bought in their multitudes.

But it’s not just kids who are ravenously reading the books that are designed for them; just as a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, children’s literature is finding an increasingly comfortable home in the hands – and hearts – of many adult readers. And it would seem that not only are the more grown-up amongst us reading children’s books simply for pleasure but are doing so to revisit the far simpler pleasures of days long past. According to new research, adults are attracted to reading many of the children’s classics as they offer a vivid picture of what has been lost for a lot of people in this frantic modern life – or as, author of the research Dr Louise Joy suggests, because they represent a “symbolic retreat from the disappointment of reality” (as perhaps, all books do in some form…?). It appears such books don’t just provide us with boundless wonder, fantasy and adventure that can be enjoyed at any age but also give us guides for living a happy, humble and fulfilling life, whether it be in the area of self-awareness and self-perception (Alice In Wonderland; several books of Roald Dahl; Wind in The Willows), relationships with others (Winnie The Pooh)…or even just appreciating the goodness of a hearty meal (The Hobbit). More in-depth and insightful information will be revealed by Dr Joy in a forthcoming book, Literature’s Children, and her findings will be presented at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, which will be taking place later this month.

Whatever you’re looking to get out of reading a piece of children’s literature – be it solace, escapism, a reminder of the comfort and cosiness of childhood past or just sheer enjoyment – such news surely comes as solid proof that you’re never too old to read something supposedly just for kids.

American researchers have discovered that television can be a distraction not just for kids but for adults too, whether it is being actively watched or is featuring mainly as background noise. In particular the presence of the turned-on television has a considerable negative impact upon the flow of interaction between parent and child, which in turn has stark consequences for the development of children’s speech. Amongst a study of over 300 children aged between two months and four years, parents were found to have spoken significantly less to their children while the television was on; every hour of TV exposure translating to a loss of 500-1,000 words. Children who watched increasing amounts of television also said less and had fewer conversations with their parents – having an alarming impact on the progress of speech and social skills.

Conversely, regular reading sessions at home have been proven to have quite the opposite effect on child development as well as parent-child communication. In a separate study at Ohio State University it was found that while more time spent watching TV links with a decreased amount of communication between mother and child, mothers who read together with their children converse more and do so in a particularly distinctive way. When reading aloud to their children, mothers were found to use an active and engaging communication style which encouraged responsiveness from children, thereby stimulating greater amounts of conversation. Parents who read aloud also help to expand their children’s vocabulary by introducing them to words that may not be typically heard by children in everyday speech. One of the researchers leading the study, Eric Rasmussen said:

“Mothers who are responsive to their infant’s communication promote a positive self-perception for the child as well as fostering trust in the parent. Positive responses help the child learn that they can affect their environment.”

Yet more evidence that shared reading really does make a difference in a number of ways – and the earlier it begins the better…! Although, you may want to start with physical, pliable books before involving the Kindle or iPad, given that personal contact is privileged over excessive technological stimulation in the early years…