New Study Says Children Love Their Bedtime Stories
A new study reveals
that storytime is most children's favorite activity with their parents. They also far prefer mom's storytelling to dad's.
Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mum's storytelling to Dad's, researchers said on Friday.
They conducted a study that showed younger children aged 3-4 were most hungry for more stories, with over three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often.
More than half of all children aged 3-8 said story time was their favorite pastime with their parents.
"The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children's lives," said child psychologist Richard Woolfson, who led the study commissioned by Disney/Pixar World of Cars.
Storytelling ranked higher than television or video games among pastimes for kids, and 82 percent said reading a story with their parents helped them sleep better, according the survey of 500 children aged 3-8 in Britain.
The best storytellers were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving, researchers said.
If mom is not available, 30% of children then prefer to hear stories read by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. Reading a bedtime story is a great way to end the day and the study says children reported sleeping better after they had a proper bedtime ritual.
