Kids are spending less time reading

Question

Over the years there has been a noticeable decline in kids reading books, and spending more time on their phones. "Fewer Americans are opening a book for fun each day, with reading for pleasure in the United States down 40% over the past 20 years, a new study finds." this quote from Dr. Raihan El-Naas, shows how there is a significant percent less reading then there was 20 years ago. This study made and effort to also show how lower income Americans are more effected by this, due to the lack of resources. 

   This is a big blow to the public school systems and America in general. This is because with the less reading it takes a toll on other things like well being, and literacy. there is a lot of good that reading provides, studies show that even 10 minutes of reading a day can improve well being. 

Answer 1

This post is misleading, and the claim is not supported by the information in the study. After viewing multiple sources, including the original published study, it is safe to say the claim that "Kids are spending less time reading" is untrue. The ABC article mentions the University College London and the University of Florida as research contributors, but the study examined a population beyond children and aimed to identify who reads for pleasure. When you look deeper into the iScience initial study, you can recognise that the information regarding children's reading only applies to adults reading with children or adolescents of 15-18 years.
Sources are embedded.

Answer 2

This claim is false/misleading. After reviewing  multiple articles, I found the original study cited in the claim, which was published in iScience. After analyzing all the data and comments from the researchers, it became clear the study does not support the claim that children are spending less time reading. In fact, the majority of participants in the research were not children at all :  67% were between the ages of 25 and 65, 17% were between 15-24 and 16% were 66 or older. The study does not primarily focus on children’s reading habits. Also, the study explicitly states that “ “reading with children has not changed over time” and that although daily reading with children is less common, it has remained stable. While some other articles suggest that children might be reading less, this specific claim misrepresents the cited article and research.

 Sources : 

https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01549-4

Answer 3

The claim that children are spending less time reading is true. Pew Research Center wrote an article titled, Among many U.S. children, reading for fun has become less common, federal data shows. It goes in depth with the survey's findings showing that both 9 and 13 year olds daily reading habits "have dropped from nearly a decade ago and are at the lowest levels since at least the mid-1980s, according to a survey conducted in late 2019 and early 2020 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)." After exploring the NAEP source, the direct findings of the survey conclude that "In 2022, average reading scores were lower for both fourth- and eighth-grade students compared to 2019: scores were lower by 3 point at both grades. Average scores at both grades were not significantly different in comparison to the first reading assessment in 1992. "

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/12/among-many-u-s-children-reading-for-fun-has-become-less-common-federal-data-shows/

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/?grade=4

Answer 4

Yes, this claim is true. According to abc news, Fewer Americans are opening a book for fun each day, with reading for pleasure in the United States down 40% over the past 20 years, a new study finds. I also was able to confirm this claim on multiple other sites, adding to the credibility of ABC's information,

Answer 5

The claim that kids are spending less time reading is true however the article that the creator of this post used is not an accurate representation and isn't accurate to kids reading times. This article isn't applicable for this certain claim since it's vague and talks about all Americans stating "reading for pleasure in the United States is down 40% in the last 20 years." That being said after doing further research the claim still stands backed by data found in articles from pewresearch and scholastic which both show trends of declining reading for pleasure rates in children and even teens.  

Answer 6

The claim of this post is that kids are spending less time reading. After reviewing multiple sources, including reports from organizations such as the National Literacy Trust and Pew Research Center, I can agree that this claim is generally true. Studies show that the amount of times that kids reading for pleasure is in decline, especially because of the increasing amount of technology in our society. Data from the National Literacy Trust shows that between now and 2005 the amount of children between the ages of 8-18 that read for pleasure has dropped from 38.1% to 28.0%.

Answer 7

The claim that children, or people in general, spend less time reading is true. However, the source cited by the original poster is somewhat misleading and inaccurate to children's time spent reading in particular, as it is a study conducted with adult subjects.  

From the National Library of Medicine I found this source that emphasizes the ABC article claim that people in general have spent less and less time reading. More notably, I found an article from the National Literary Trust that focuses primarily on children aged 8 to 18. This article explains the decrease in reading since 2005. The information in this article is interesting and convicing, however it is important to note that it is sponsored by a brand called "twinkl" which dedicated to helping children read.  The National Literary trust did a similar research project in 2019 and found similar findings. 

Overall the National Literary Trust is a nonprofit (charity) that profits with educators and empowers literacy. Its documentation of the decline in literacy rings true and is supported by this article by the Pew Research Center. Here they also noticed a trend in reading for fun decreasing over the years, this time between children aged 9-13. They break down their processes well and have similar outcomes to the National Literary Trust.

 

Answer 8

This claim is misleading as it blurs the line between kids and overall Americans. Yes, there is a 40% decline in reading, but this is measured from Americans 15 and older (as said in the article). The data-driven article provided is not speaking about children but instead mostly about adults. To add to this, the wording also suggests that this drop is due to cellphone usage, but the article suggests correlation, not causation. This makes the claim here feel more definitive than the science allows. What makes this misleading instead of false entirely is that the primary source is accurate and reliable.

Answer 9

The claim in this post is true. The Pew Research Center found that the percentage of kids that read for fun has gone done drastically and it is the lowest it has ever been since the mid-1980s. It goes on to show their findings on a graph. The data coming from a survey in 2020 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was among US public and private schools. The findings show how much the percentage has dropped in reading for 9 and 13 year olds since 1984. This shows that the claim of kids reading less is true however the article supporting what the creator of this posted does not support that claim. That is because it is about Americans as a whole and not just focused on kids reading time.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/12/among-many-u-s-children-reading-for-fun-has-become-less-common-federal-data-shows/ 

Answer 10

i fact-checked the claim that kids are spending less time reading and found that it is generally true when looking at trends in reading for pleasure and book reading. Data from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report show that as children get older, their reading enjoyment and frequency of reading books for fun decline significantly. For example, frequent reading drops from nearly half of younger children to much lower rates among teens. Surveys also show that fewer children are read to every day compared with past years and that kids now spend more time on screens like video and games than on reading activities. However, the trend isn’t uniform across all ages and formats (e.g., print vs. screen), but the overall pattern supports the idea that reading for fun has decreased among many children