Why I’m Getting Involved With The ‘Get Kids Reading’ Campaign.

My eldest loves to read, he always has. He enjoys to read his school books with me or his dad in the evenings, he enjoys reading to himself in bed. Some of his favourites include the David Walliams’ books, the first few books of Harry Potter and all the Captain Underpants series. He reads for pleasure and it’s wonderful to see. He gets excited when receiving a book token as a gift and loves (maybe as much as I do) wandering around a book shop searching for his new book!

But will it all change as he gets older? He’s seven years-old. As well as reading he also loves playing with his toy cars with his younger brother, playing on his scooter outside, watching the TV and occasionally playing on his new Nintendo Switch. As his exposure to more technology and in the future, social media, will his love of reading start to fade? I certainly hope not!

Reading and enjoying books from an early age is so important for a child’s brain development, that’s why I was so keen to get involved with this campaign.

Get Kids Reading is a literacy campaign helping modern parents understand the importance of reading for a child’s brain development and attainment in the modern world. The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness around the dangers of social media for our children’s literacy (something I had never thought about) and to give parents access to high quality self – help resources.

The campaign, from Sooper Books has looked at recent studies and the suggestion of ‘how heavy social media use is impacting on the literacy of our children and the definitive link between ‘the amount of time young people spend on social media and their levels of literacy’. Also increased use of social media has been linked to increased levels of depression, lack of sleep, increased risk of cyber-bullying and low-self esteem!

As a mum of three young children (as I said my eldest is 7) I find this very worrying. On the flip side, research into developing a passion for reading early can help steer our children away from the mental health challenges of excessive social media consumption towards a happier, more fulfilled childhood. Reading has a direct impact on our child’s ability to learn effectively!

Social media is here to stay and technology is always changing, improving. We as parents need a smart and simple way to help spark and maintain our children’s interest in reading. This is where Sooper Books and the Get Kids Reading campaign comes in!

Sooper Books have created a free online children’s library of award-winning short stories in order to bridge the gap between other children’s fascination with technology and our need for them to read. These stories are perfect for busy modern families as they can be enjoyed and read anywhere, anytime and of course free of charge.

I think it’s a brilliant idea. Lots of children of all ages have tablets these days for games, TV shows and even social media app but this online library allows them access to some fantastic stories at a touch of a button.