Reading remains an 'incredibly important skill' says Worcester library manager on World Book Day
It's as today is World Book Day which aims to celebrate reading
A Worcester library manager says learning to read and enjoy books remains an essential part of young people's learning.
The National Literacy Trust's recent survey showed in 2024 a higher percentage of children and young people said they enjoyed listening (42.3%), than enjoyed reading in their free time (34.6%).
It's the first time that more enjoyed listening than reading since the charity first started asking about listening in 2020.
Stephanie Jones from the Hive library in Worcester says reading allows people to create and form relationships in so many ways and it's great to see they are enjoying books in different forms.
"Reading is just an incredibly important skill for both children, adults and everyone," she said.
"It helps with cognitive development, it helps with language skill and the development of vocabulary, while parents reading with their children is incredibly important and can help so much with the bonding between the parent and the child.
"The literacy of the reading is also really important, whether you're reading it as a piece of text or whether you're listening to it as an audio book, you're hearing words and you're understanding their impact."
Figures from the survey also revealed how almost 2 in 5 (37.5%) children and young people said listening to audio had sparked their interest in reading books.
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