Research shows that children who have books in their home and who talk about stories or learn letters with their families, are more likely to do well at school – not only in literacy but across the board. And these effects are crucial and long-lasting: they can still be seen in secondary school.
Unfortunately, not all children have the opportunity to develop a love of books early on in life. In particular, poorer families tend to have fewer resources to buy books and may have less time for reading. Parents may also feel less confident reading to their children, especially if they had a negative experience of school themselves.
This means that, on average, children from disadvantaged backgrounds start school with less familiarity with books and less exposure to so-called “book language”: more complex vocabulary and grammatical structures is found in books than is common in spoken language.
