A survey of 4,477 primary school pupils by National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found 76 per cent of nine-year-olds read stories at home in 2007, compared with 84 per cent in 1998. A similar reduction occurred in 11-year-olds, with a fall from 82 to 72 per cent.
The study, Attitudes to Reading at Ages Nine and Eleven, also found a steep decline in children's interest in non-fiction books. The number of 11-year-olds who read them plunged from 54 per cent in 1998 to a mere 35 per cent in 2007.
Despite the decline, most children said they enjoyed reading stories. The study also revealed children were inc- reasingly enjoying comics and magazines. However, it did not examine whether children had begun to read more on computers than in print.
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