What Makes Proficient Readers

The Fifth Kids and Family Reading Report (by Scholastic) came out and is a great reminder of how strong readers are made.

In the survey of over 1,000 families, both parents and children agreed that the most important developmental skill was reading. And the best way to go from being a beginner reader to being a proficient reader is lots of skill appropriate practice. But there is a huge range in the number of books our children read. Among 12-17 year olds, frequent readers average about 40 books per year, while infrequent readers read less than 5.

So what can we do to encourage more reading? The survey says:

  • Fun Reading – children that enjoy reading and believed that reading is fun read the most. And children enjoyed reading when they chose the book themselves, when the book was skill appropriate, and when the book was read for pleasure.
  • Parents Reading – children in homes where parents read a lot of books, acquired their parents reading habits. It also helps to live in a house that has a lot of books and with moderate TV and computer time.
  • Independent Reading at School – children that had more independent reading opportunities at school enjoyed this time and read more than those that had on prescribed reading
Scholastic Inforgraphic on Frequent Readers
What Makes Frequent Readers

One Response to “What Makes Proficient Readers”

  1. Betsy Primm

    Very interesting findings. Looking at this, it’s easy to see how kids fall more and more behind in reading proficiency if they don’t get a strong start and solid foundation early on. Nobody does something for pleasure if it’s too
    hard. I was a poor swimmer as a child and
    never found it fun as I got older.

    Reply

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