Laura Sokal of the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada examines why boys don’t read in Help Wanted: Boys’ Reading. Some key points:
- Boys’ reading performance lags behind girls’ by approximately 1.5 years.
- The average child is read to for approximately 1,000 hours before beginning school.
- Boys view reading as feminine. Mothers read more often to children than do fathers, and early years educators tend to be females. When fathers take an active role in children’s reading, children demonstrate an increased interest in reading.
- Girls like to read story books and boys like to read texts such as manuals in order to find out how to do something.
- Only one third of school libraries carry the types of books boys prefer — scary stories, cartoons, magazines and stories with themes such as war. Children who begin reading these types of “soft” literature branch out into reading other genres of literature.