Cornwall teacher advocates for more reading time to reduce screen impact on children

With 96 percent of children in Cornwall securing places at their preferred primary schools, attention is being drawn to home reading habits as a Cornwall teacher encourages parents to spend more time reading with their children.

Emily Lofthouse, who teaches at North Cornwall Tuition, highlights the need for greater parental involvement in reading activities with children following a revealing poll by The Works.

The poll found that 68 percent of children express a preference for technology over traditional books and more than a third of children across the UK are interacting with books as they would with screens, creating concerns among parents.

This includes trying to "zoom in" on the pages by by pinching with two fingers or searching for an "on button" on books.

To address these concerns, The Works has launched a free book initiative intended to rekindle interest in reading within homes dominated by technology.

Emily Lofthouse emphasises the importance of fostering a love for reading from a young age, urging parents to make reading a regular, engaging activity at home.

She also tells us of the impact of engagement and attention span is weakened which is causing issues in the classrooms for teachers:

"In the classroom, I very much felt as what ever you did as a teacher was not going to as exciting as a screen. There are some children that were not going to be gripped by that, because they've had this constant screentime stimulation."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.