News

Foster carers encouraged to inspire love of books

Reading together improves relationships between children and their foster carers, new research suggests.

A study by the National Children’s Bureau on behalf of reading charity BookTrust shows that 90 per cent of foster carers who read with their child say it has made a positive impact on the relationship between them.

Shared reading helped foster carers connect with their child, understand and talk about issues in their child’s life, and increased their child’s self-esteem, the report found.

Three quarters of almost 600 carers surveyed said they strongly agreed that reading had many educational benefits for their child, including helping to widen a child’s vocabulary, feed imagination and build communication skills.

Diana Gerald, BookTrust chief executive, said, ‘Shared reading is linked to a wide range of life outcomes and we are delighted this new research highlights the positive impact reading can have on the relationship between carers and their children. We look forward to working with practitioners to support carers with inspiring a love of books in their children.’

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