Why It Seems Like Kids Can’t Read Anymore

One of my daily challenges as a parent is getting my fourth grader to read for 30 minutes as part of her homework.

It’s not because she struggles with her reading skills; she actually reads well-above grade level. Like many kids of her generation, though, my daughter has zero interest in picking up a book. Why would she, when she’s got an iPad offering her nonstop entertainment via videos expertly designed for her short attention span?

Allie, a mother of three in Connecticut who asked to use just her first name to protect her privacy, can relate: While she confirmed all of her kids can read and write at grade level, she told HuffPost that “they just don’t WANT to.” Allie believes the prevalence of screens is “a huge factor” when it comes to her kids’ lack of interest in reading. “Books can’t compete with screens,” she lamented.

But Allie has also noticed some potential long-term effects stemming from her kids’ reading indifference: She said that when her teenage son took a private school entrance exam, “his reading/vocab section was abysmally low.” And this was despite getting A’s in English honors classes! “Because he wasn’t reading recreationally,” Allie observed, “he wasn’t being exposed to enough opportunities to ‘absorb’ new vocabulary and exercise his reading comprehension skills.”

It’s not just my daughter or Allie’s kids who are exhibiting reading apathy; there has been a steady decline over the past 40 years. Thirty-one percent of 13-year-olds reported in 2023 that they “never or hardly ever” read for fun. This is compared with the 29% reported in 2020 and the 8% reported in 1984. In addition, only 30% of eighth graders in the United States read at or above the proficient level, with one-third of 12th graders lacking basic reading skills.

For Gen X parents like myself and Allie, who were raised on the “take a look, it’s in a book” approach, it’s hard to watch our kids treat reading as something that’s as obsolete as, well, “Reading Rainbow.” As Allie put it, not only are our kids not “getting the exposure to vocabulary and comprehension” that they need, but “they are also missing out on the joy of reading (and what they can learn about the world).”

So, how did this happen? Was it the COVID-19 pandemic that forced students…