Reading and academic success

Research reported in today's Times:
Children’s love of reading has a bigger influence on their academic success than whether their parents hold a degree, research has shown.
Those whose parents read to them every night when they were five and who went on to develop a passion for reading did better in tests at 16 — even in maths — than peers who had similar academic ability when younger.
Academics at the University of London’s Institute for Education analysed the performance of 6,000 children born in 1970 in maths, spelling and vocabulary tests. They found reading for pleasure was more important for cognitive development between the ages of ten and 16 than parents’ education.
“The combined effect on children’s progress of reading books often, going to the library regularly and reading newspapers at 16 was four times greater than the advantage children gained from having a parent with a degree,” the report said. “We found that the home reading culture, including reading to the child, reading books and newspapers, was significantly linked to children’s test scores.
“A mother who struggles with reading is likely to struggle to read to her child, and unlikely to read in her leisure time. This suggests parental illiteracy presents ongoing problems for children’s learning throughout childhood, and also highlights the problem that parental difficulties with literacy may well be hidden due to stigma. Given the prevalence of adult illiteracy in Britain, with functional illiteracy estimated at 15 per cent, this could be an important policy lever for improving children’s outcomes.”
The study, led by Alice Sullivan, concluded that “the positive link between leisure reading and cognitive outcomes is not purely due to more able children being more likely to read a lot, but that reading is actually linked to increased cognitive progress over time”.
A separate study at Royal Holloway, University of London, published today in the journal Child Development, found babies aged nine months could learn about the world from picture books.
In the study, 30 eight- and nine-month-old babies were shown a photograph of a toy. Two toys were then placed in front of the babies — one shown in the picture and a different one. The babies tended to reach for the toy that had not been in the picture, suggesting they recognised the original toy, but found it less interesting because its novelty had worn off.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4076176.ece

Today is William Shakespeare's 450th anniversary. It is also international World Book Day, which is a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It’s marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day come from Catalonia in Spain, where roses and books are given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago on the feast day of their patron saint, also St George, and the anniversary of the great Spanish writer Cervantes who wrote Don Quixote. It's also known there as the Day of the Book.

On this day men offer a rose to their loved one, and in return she gives him a book. Those of you visiting Barcelona, for example, would not fail to see the main streets lined with stalls selling roses and books, as the tradition is hugely popular and has spread to exchanges between friends and work mates too.

I'm delighted to be congratulating OLA friend Katherine Rundell, again, this time for winning the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Rooftoppers, launched at OLA last year, has already won the Blue Peter Best Story award. Here's wishing her luck for Triple, i.e. the Carnegie Medal for which it's shortlisted.