According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education 1, children who are read to at home enjoy a substantial advantage over children who are not.
Twenty-six percent of children who were read to three or four times in the last week by a family member recognized all letters of the alphabet. This is compared to 14 percent of children who were read to less frequently.
The NCES1 also reported that children who were read to frequently are also more likely to:
count to 20, or higher than those who were not (60% vs. 44%)
write their own names (54% vs. 40%)
read or pretend to read (77% vs. 57%)
The U.S. Department of Education found that, generally, the more students read for fun on their own time, the higher their reading scores.
1 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2000.