Reading Books to Kids for Over 20 Minutes Will Cause Them to Lose Interest, New Survey Says

Majority of kids enjoy being read to, but only for 20 minutes or less. If reading becomes longer than 20 minutes , kids would most likely lose interest or get bored, according to a new survey.

Reading to children is very much important. It is said that parents and caregivers must read books to the young ones, even and including during infancy, and continue until the kids reach the Kindergarten stage as reading opens up integral developmental benefits aside from kids learning how to read. Reading teaches children to speak, to imagine and to create.

Yet, as important reading is, choosing the best duration of reading is as crucial in order to get the maximum benefit for the children. Read to kids too little and they wouldn't experience as much learning. Read to them too much, on the other hand, and they get bored and would not want to engage.

How long should you read to your child?

Premium Joy recently conducted a survey to over 800 parents in the US with kids aged 1 to 6 years old asking how many minutes they can read to their children each time before they get bored.

The survey revealed that almost 65 percent of the kids were fine with up to 5 to 20 minutes reading. In this duration, parents observed that the kids are in attention, enjoying, and listening. However, read longer than 20 minutes and the kids lose interest and get bored.

The study further showed that about 2 out of 10 children or 21 percent have a much lower tolerance to being read to. They are only able to withstand their parent's reading for only a maximum of 4 minutes. Moreover, only 14 percent of the kids do not lose interest when read to for more than 20 minutes.

Hassan Alnassir, founder and owner of Premium Joy, expressed, "You generally want to maximize the amount of books you read to your child in order to amplify the benefit, but there is a limit. Our survey findings indicate that parents should try to cap the duration of reading to their kids to about 20 minutes at most to avoid boring them."

Read Also: Top 5 Tips For Parents to Make Reading a Cool Thing for Kids

How often should you read to your child?

Furthermore, the survey also showed other relevant findings about American parent and child reading frequency and habits.

Vast majority of US parents or about 77 percent read books to their kid every single day, while 50 percent of the parents read to their kid once a day. Thirteen percent read to their kid every other day, and 10 percent once a week or less.

Sixty-seven percent of parents in the US read 1 to 2 books to their kid every day. About 16 percent read 3 books to their kids daily, and 16 percent take the time and effort to read 4 or more books to their kid every day.

When asked if they read the same book, most parents or about 55 percent of them said that they read the same book to their kid 2 to 3 times a week. Two out of 10 or 19 percent read the same book only once weekly, while there are 9 percent or parents that read the same book to their child 7 times or more every week.

The survey also found that half of the US kids ages 1 to 6 years old cannot read yet, while 40 percent are already able to read simple sight words like "from" and "the." One out of 10 or 10 percent of the kids can already read complex words.

Lastly, parents were asked if they feel they need to read more to their children, and 61 percent expressed that the amount of time they spend reading to their kids is just about right, while 32 percent of US parents feel like they are not giving enough reading time for their kid. Seven percent, on the other hand, expressed that they are reading too much to their kid.

Related Article: Easy Ways to Get Your Kids to Read More Books