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Fewer Parents are Reading to Their Kids—and Why It Matters

Mar 31, 2026

2 min

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A dramatic decline in reading for pleasure in the United States has fewer American parents reading aloud to their children — and experts warn the consequences can be dire.


“It builds connections,” Carol Anne St. George, an expert in early literacy at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Human Development, recently told The74 for an article citing a 41-percent decline in parents reading to children daily.


“People talk about text to text, text to world,” St. George said, “and those are the kinds of things that help children cognitively think and classify their world around them.”


Many young parents grew up in an education system focused on reading as a means to testing and building skills rather than enjoyment. As a result, St. George worries, they often view reading to their young as an obligation rather than a joy and a time to bond.


Experts say an increased reliance on screens and digital content and time pressures and competing demands on families have also fueled the decline.


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St. George notes that children benefit greatly from being read to regularly. The advantages of early literacy include:


• Having a more robust vocabulary and stronger communications skills.

• Being better prepared to learn in school.

• Having a closer relationship with their parents.

• Higher academic achievement and better health outcomes later in life.



What Parents Can Do


St. George advises parents to:


• Let children choose books they enjoy.

• Make reading part of a daily routine and that bedtime is ideal.

• Focus on fun and connection.

• Model good reading behavior because children mimic what they see.


St. George is available for media interviews and can be reached by contacting Theresa Danylak, the director of communications at the Warner School, at tdanylak@warner.rochester.edu.


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