We are losing our love of reading!

Picture books, comics, adventure stories, non-fiction, intrigue and fantasy - chapter after chapter… Children and young people (and adults) LOVE stories! They love being immersed in a character and taken on a journey where they experience highs and lows, risk and reward, without ever having to put themselves in danger. They love focusing in on a personal interest; discovering facts and amazing insights to share with peers and family. And they love imagining a type of world so far from the one we experience with mythical creatures, futuristic living or powers and abilities we could only dream of.

So, even with over a decade of pushing a love of reading across all key stages, why is it that ‘reading for pleasure’ amongst children and young people is at its lowest point in the last 20 years?

Between 2005 and 2025, there is a 36% drop in the number of children and young people who say they enjoy reading for pleasure.

One important factor we can’t ignore is the environment our children and young people are growing up in. With constant access to fast-paced digital content, increasing academic demands and limited time to pause, reading is often competing with experiences that offer more immediate reward. This doesn’t mean young people value reading less, but it does mean that the conditions needed to enjoy it - time, space, autonomy and low pressure - are harder to come by. If we want to rebuild a love of reading, we must first understand the world they are navigating and create opportunities that genuinely meet them where they are.

Regardless of causes or blame, this is a worrying decline for many reasons, not least our children and young people’s Emotional Wellbeing.

How does reading for pleasure affect our Emotional Wellbeing?

Some of us read to learn, some of us read to connect with important issues or peers and some of us read for an escape - a pause from life that helps us reset and regulate, but this mindful reading exercise isn’t the main reason why it’s good for our Emotional Wellbeing.

Studies show that those who are most engaged with literacy are three times as likely to have higher levels of Emotional Wellbeing than those who are least engaged. It doesn’t stop there; reading fiction is seen to have positive effects on our Executive Functioning skills, including Emotional Regulation, emotional intelligence and Emotional Literacy as well as our ability to develop empathy - this is because reading gives us the opportunity to watch how somebody else recognises, understands and manages their emotions. We’re able to reflect on our own experiences while seeing, through the story, how different behaviours might play out. We learn with and from the characters in the book as we both grow together from the scenarios and challenges they face. Our own Executive Functioning improves merely from immersing ourselves in another world. These skills, when well developed, lead to increased motivation, higher levels of resilience and more positive relationships with our peers.

Conversely, executive dysfunction can lead to decreased motivation, confidence, and self-esteem with challenges having immediate, secondary and long-term outcomes. 

The emotional impacts of executive dysfunction can include:

  • Feeling “Stuck”
  • Frustration and Stress
  • Self-Doubt
  • Lessened Motivation
  • Pervasive Feelings of Guilt and Shame
  • Unhealthy Self-Talk
  • Learned Helplessness

Some long-term consequences of executive dysfunction include anxiety, depression, less independence, and poor quality social relationships.

What can schools do to rekindle the love of reading?

Neither the blame nor the solution lies entirely with schools, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it or even that we’re not best placed to.

It would appear that no number of ‘Reading for pleasure’ schemes are going to improve the statistics here. That phrase, which has been used for around 20 years now, is pushing for the right result, but either schools aren’t the best place to achieve it or we’re getting it all wrong in our approach.

Interestingly, the National Literacy Trust's annual survey shows that over the last 6 years, the highest levels of reading for pleasure were during COVID. This raises an important question about what had changed during that time. For many children and young people, lockdown reduced external pressures, removed elements of social judgement and created more flexible time to engage in activities on their own terms. Reading was no longer positioned alongside assessment, comparison or expectation, but as something to return to when it felt meaningful. If this was a key factor in increased engagement, it suggests that recreating even small elements of that autonomy and reducing pressure within school environments could play a significant role in helping young people reconnect with reading for pleasure.

The stats alone can’t provide a reason, but what they do tell us is that there are ways to help our younger generation rekindle their love of reading.

We're not here to tell you about Drop Everything and Read or how important your library space is, however, we do think it can be helpful to remind ourselves of what reading for pleasure actually looks like:

Genuine autonomy - During moments of ‘reading for pleasure’ or ‘volitional reading’, make sure it is genuine. No assessments, no challenges, no specifications, just pure choice given to every individual. 15-20 minutes of the day where academics, expectations and even informed teacher guidance do not matter, just children and young people interacting with books in ways that work for them.

A variety of methods - Reading individually in a quiet space with others. Reading the same book adjacent to your peers. Reading out loud to a peer. Exploring a book with friends in a small group. Reading topics related to any areas of learning. Reading a wordless book. Reading a pictureless book. Reading books that are too high or too low for an individual’s usual level. Listening to audiobooks of stories they couldn’t otherwise access. Listening to podcasts about topics of interest.

Reading, however it feels positive for the individual in that moment.


Teacher engagement - When do teachers get the time to read for themselves? How about during the same volitional reading moments? This could be a time when teachers announce what they’re going to read, and students can go to their space to join them. It might be that the physics teacher has the latest information on the lifecycle of stars that they want to read about or the Year 4 teacher might want to read the latest in the Skandar and the Unicorn series; create a space where students can be inspired by their teachers and have it modelled what reading for pleasure looks like with genuine discussion about their interests and areas of enjoyment without secretly writing down their answers for comprehension. And if no one comes, read it anyway.

Ask your students

Pupil voice is a form of autonomy, a key factor in children and young people's willingness to engage in prescribed reading sessions. What do they want from their time to read? What could help them want to engage? How can you work with them to balance their wants with the resources and space you have available?

We know the aim in these moments isn’t to secretly assess your students' reading attainment, but it isn’t even to force them to love reading. It’s to help them realise the benefits of reading and the joy it can bring, whether socially, academically or emotionally.

Rebuilding a love of reading isn’t about finding the perfect strategy or introducing the next initiative. It’s about creating the right conditions for it to grow again. When children and young people are given the time, space and autonomy to engage with reading on their own terms, it becomes more than a skill to be developed - it becomes something that supports who they are, how they feel and how they connect with the world around them.

At Motional, we see this as part of a wider approach to development. By supporting schools to better understand individual needs, amplify pupil voice and build environments that prioritise wellbeing alongside learning, we can help create the conditions where reading for pleasure - and the benefits that come with it - can thrive again.