New research from Australia shows that children are more likely to read the paper version of books rather than on devices. The study looked at children in Year 4 and 6 who had access to e-reading devices. It showed that children did not tend to use their devices for reading even if they were regular readers in general.

In fact, the research showed that the more devices a child had access to, the less likely they were to read in general. In other words, access to e-reading devices inhibited reading.

These findings mirror those of previous research of teenagers and college students, showing that they all prefer to read on paper.

Two of the largest studies of reading habits of children in the UK have been recently completed.

They show that boys of every age typically read less thoroughly than girls, no matter what sort of literature they are reading. They tend to take less time to process what they are reading and skip parts as well. Finally, they also choose things to read that are too easy for them.

Though boys read nonfiction more than girls do, the studies demonstrated that boys are not any better at reading nonfiction as thoroughly as girls are. There is also no relationship to socioeconomic status seen in the studies.

Topping said: “What you need is teachers, classroom assistants, librarians spending time with a child to talk about choices in reading; possible suggestions for more challenging books in the context of what they are interested in.

“We are not saying read hundreds of classics and that everything will be all right. They need to read challenging books in a subject in which they are interested.”

Details on the large studies can be found in The Guardian.

Public Radio International has the news of a new study that reveals yet another reason that reading is important for children. The study done at University of California Riverside shows that the text of children’s books contains “substantially more unique words than ordinary parent-child conversation.”

Transcripts of conversations were compared with text from a hundred children’s picture books, largely compiled from book lists from teachers and librarians, Amazon and the most popular books at the local public library.

The difference is incredible, with 70% more unique words in books than in speech.

The next step in the study of text vs. speech will be focused on sentence-level differences.

Researchers have conducted MRIs to prove that reading to children sparks changes in their brains. Specifically, reading aloud to preschoolers helps with “mental imagery and understanding narrative” which are both keys to emerging literacy.

Researchers looked at the brains of 19 3-5 year olds using MRI, scanning their brains while they listened to recordings of stories being read aloud. The results showed that children who were from homes where there was more reading had greater activity in the key brain areas than children who did not.

"This is a small and very early study, but the exciting thing it was able to demonstrate is that early reading does have an impact on the parts of the brain that are fundamental for developing literacy early on," DeWitt said. "It’s biological evidence that transcends empirical studies.

Read more at Huff Po and Web MD.