The government has been urged to include audiobooks in the new schools curriculum in England, after research showed fewer children were reading books for pleasure and more were listening to them instead.
A poll by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that children’s enjoyment of listening to audio and podcasts had risen compared with the previous year, overtaking their enjoyment of reading for the first time since the charity began asking about audio in 2020.
More than two in five (42.3%) of the 37,000 children and young people aged between eight and 18 in the UK who took part in the poll said they enjoyed listening to audio in their free time in 2024, up from 39.4% in 2023.
As audio increases in popularity, reading for pleasure has fallen to “crisis” levels, according to the NLT, with just over one-third of children (34.6%) saying they enjoyed reading in their free time. Boys were particularly disenchanted with books, resulting in a 28.2% v 40.5% gender gap.
With audio, however, more boys (43.4%) than girls (40.4%) said they enjoyed listening, and the NLT said it hoped audiobooks and podcasts could offer a gateway into reading for pleasure for boys and girls.
The charity said it was therefore “advocating for increased access to, and a broadening of, the variety of reading formats available to pupils to include audio”.
“In recent years, we’ve seen a steady rise in children’s enjoyment of listening to audio and uncovered the myriad of benefits it can bring – from sparking a love of reading and supporting literacy development, to deepening learning and boosting wellbeing,” said Jonathan Douglas, the NLT’s chief executive.
“By working together to leverage children and young people’s enthusiasm for audio, we can play an important role in growing a generation of readers and turning the page on the nation’s reading for pleasure crisis.”
However, John Mullan, a professor of English at University College London, said audiobooks were no substitute for reading. He said: “I’m not against audiobooks. I listen to them myself and my children certainly listen to them.
“But it’s something very different from having your parents read a book to you, which I think is a really, really good thing if at all possible. An audiobook is unresponsive and implacable. There’s no possible exchange or rapport, however brilliantly read it is.”
He said there was a difference between reading, which he described as animating, and listening, which is passive.
“It does not mean it can’t be a portal to a love of books; of course it can. Listening to an audiobook is better than not having any interest in a work of fiction at all, but I don’t think it’s a substitute.”
The children’s commissioner for England and former headteacher Rachel de Souza agreed: “I love listening to audiobooks. If that gives kids access to great literature, I’m going to support it.
“There’s certainly a place for audiobooks, but I don’t think they should replace reading the real thing. There’s something so special about that, I think.”
The government is due to publish an interim report on its curriculum and assessment review imminently.
Sarah Hannafin, the head of policy at the National Association of Head Teachers, said more should be done to support the literacy skills that children needed to navigate through life.
“In English this must include developing a love of reading, and harnessing children and young people’s enjoyment of listening is one way that can, and should, be encouraged.”
Julie McCulloch, the director of strategy and policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “There is certainly potential in using audio formats to encourage a love of reading alongside all the things that schools are doing to teach children to read and write, and access great books.”
Jonathan Bate, a professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, welcomed the use of audiobooks in schools. “There’s lots of evidence that there’s a crisis of attention span around the written word, but one thing we do know is that young people are very keen on audio material.
“The success of long-form podcasts shows that when it comes to listening, attention is really there. It’s a return to the origins of story telling, which is in the oral tradition, a story teller speaking a story aloud to an audience around a camp fire. This is how literature began.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Reading for pleasure is hugely important, with strong links to improved attainment, wellbeing, and development for young people. Teachers are already encouraged to support their pupils to listen to, discuss, and read a wide range of stories, poems, plays and books. This can include using audio books.”
