Nurturing a love of reading tends to start at home. But increasingly, that doesn’t always happen.
A new study, released in August and conducted by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University, found that parents and other caregivers are reading less often to their preschool-aged children than before the pandemic.
The study also suggested that certain factors lead to a greater likelihood of regular shared reading habits at home, and others appear to have the opposite effect. Those insights may be useful to educators as they guide families toward establishing strong shared-reading habits at home—which can boost early literacy skills and hook kids on the joy of reading for fun.
It’s a message that gained renewed attention recently with the passing of country star Dolly Parton, whose lifelong commitment to early literacy benefited children around the world. Inspired by the limitations faced by her father, who was illiterate, Parton gifted over 304 million books to children globally from birth to age 5 through her Imagination Library program, which has pledged to continue her work.
Research on the program shows its extensive impact. Children in Australia who participated in the program were read to more frequently at home, and for longer durations, according to a 2024 study.
Building on that research, a 2025 international study on the Imagination Library program that examined feedback from more than 86,000 participating families in five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Australia—concluded that children who’d received just 10 books from the program demonstrated stronger emerging literacy skills—vocabulary and phonological awareness—than non-participating peers. Program participants were also far more likely than non-participants to show an active interest in books and to actively engage during shared book-reading experiences with parents or caregivers.
Shared reading dropped off during the pandemic
Conversely, disruptions to family routines during the pandemic appear to have had the opposite effect when it comes to establishing reading habits.
The NIEER study showed that parent-child shared book reading declined after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and had not returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2025. The nationally representative survey, which included parents of children aged 3 to 5 years who weren’t yet in kindergarten, drew from self-reported feedback of 6,969 parent respondents.
The study defined “frequent” shared reading as a parent or other household member reading to a child three or more times within the past week. In 2019, about 85% of U.S. preschool-aged children were read to frequently at home, according to the study. Between April 2020 and September 2025, shared reading declined and remained below 75%.
The NIEER study results supported what the Imagination Library program studies revealed: Having children’s books in the house increases the likelihood of shared reading.
NIEER researchers found that for every 10 print books in the home, the odds of shared reading were 8% higher. The presence of e-books at home, however, did not affect shared reading frequency.
Losing the ability to easily access books may partly explain the dip in shared reading among households during the pandemic. Public libraries closed for a lengthy time period during the pandemic; so did schools.
Access to books is a bigger challenge for some families than others. For instance, the NIEER study found that Hispanic parents were less likely than other parents to read to their children at home. It’s possible that they simply didn’t have ready access to bilingual or Spanish-language books.
Past research supports the theory that providing Hispanic families with books, either bilingual or those in the parents’ native language, will increase the likelihood that they’ll read regularly to their children at home.
Researchers identified factors that correlate to shared reading behavior, but not cause
The NIEER study linked certain behaviors to shared reading habits at home, but stopped short of assigning direct cause.
For instance, the researchers found a positive correlation between preschool attendance and shared reading at home. But they couldn’t say for certain why preschool attendance affected shared reading frequency at home.
“Is it that parents who are seeking education opportunities for their kids also provide education opportunities for their kids, one of which is reading to them?” said Steven Barnett, the founder of NIEER at Rutgers University and a co-author of the study.
He also suggested that preschool programs may encourage parents to read with their kids. Or, that perhaps kids hear a book that their teacher reads to the class and want to continue that experience at home.
Preschool-age children’s screen time was another factor associated with the amount of shared reading happening at home. Kids who spent more time on screens got less shared reading time with parents or caregivers, and vice versa. But again, researchers couldn’t say for sure why that is.
“Is it that just sheer screen time pushes reading time out? Is it that kids come to prefer screens over reading? Is it that parents who are more lax on their kids’ screen time are also less likely to read with their kids?” Barnett asked.
While unable to determine the precise link between screen time and shared reading time, Barnett said this much is clear: “We know that most kids in this age group are on screens more than the recommended amount of time.”
They’re not the only ones. The decline in early reading mirrors patterns across the board.
Screen time habits ramped up during the pandemic for people of all ages and, in many cases, have remained stubbornly high. Conversely, reading is down. In 2025, 40% of U.S. adults admitted to not reading a single book, according to a YouGov survey.
