Why is reading important? US adults living with a young child spend about 4 minutes a day reading with them

• In 2025, adults 18 and over living with a child under 6 spent on average 2.3 hours a day on childcare as a main activity. Of that, about 58 minutes went to physical care, 34 minutes to playing, and about 4 minutes to reading to or with children.
• The reading figure is roughly constant: between 0.06 and 0.08 hours a day, about 4 to 5 minutes, in each year from 2022 to 2025.
• These are averages over all adults in such households and all days, including people who did no childcare that day, and they count reading only when it was the main thing the person was doing.
• Another federal survey asks a different question: in 2023, 84% of children ages 3–5 not yet in kindergarten had been read to three or more times in the past week, while 42% had been told a story that often.

Reading aloud to a young child does several things at once. It exposes them to words they rarely hear in everyday talk, which builds vocabulary. It asks them to follow a story, which builds attention and memory. And it gives you a safe way to talk about feelings: a character who is scared, jealous, or brave is easier to discuss than your child's own bad day.

Large studies point the same way, as associations. In the OECD's 2025 study of 5-year-olds in several countries, children read to five or more days a week scored higher not only in early literacy and numeracy but also in recognizing emotions. See our data story on reading and kindergarten readiness.

Those are associations, not proof that reading alone causes the differences, but reading aloud is one of the simplest, cheapest habits a family can have.

The American Time Use Survey asks people to describe everything they did in one day, minute by minute. It's the best national source on how Americans spend their time.

In 2025, adults living with a child under 6 spent on average 2.3 hours a day on childcare as their main activity. Physical care, such as feeding, bathing, and dressing, took the largest share, about 58 minutes. Playing and hobbies with children came second at 34 minutes. Reading to or with children averaged about 4 minutes, and talking with or listening to children as a main activity about 2.

Women averaged more total childcare than men, 2.8 hours versus 1.7. For reading, women averaged about 5 minutes and men about 2.

Four minutes sounds low, and it partly is. But it's worth understanding what the number measures.

It's an average over all adults in households with a young child, including grandparents, older siblings over 18, and parents who didn't do any childcare that day. It's averaged over all seven days. And it only counts reading when it was the person's main activity. Reading a bedtime story while also folding laundry may be recorded under something else.

So the honest reading is: across all these adults and days, reading as a focused activity takes up a few minutes on average. Many families read more, and many read less.

Time-diary surveys also tend to miss very short or overlapping moments: a page read while waiting at the doctor's office, a story told in the car. The figure is best read as a floor for focused, sit-down reading, not a complete count of every word read aloud in a day.

A different federal survey asks parents a simpler question: how many times in the past week did someone in the family do certain things with the child?

In 2023, for children ages 3 to 5 not yet in kindergarten, 84% had been read to three or more times in the past week. 74% had sung songs together that often, 67% had been taught letters, words, or numbers, 48% had done arts and crafts, and 42% had been told a story.

The two surveys don't contradict each other. The two numbers measure different things: the daily average covers all adults and all days and counts only main-activity reading, while the weekly question asks whether reading happened at all.

Who does the reading also varies. In the time-use data, women living with a young child averaged about 5 minutes a day of reading as a main activity and men about 2, a gap somewhat larger in relative terms than in childcare overall (2.8 versus 1.7 hours).

Short, regular reading is easy to keep up, and ten minutes most days adds up over a year.

Make it a conversation. Ask what a character is feeling and why. Ask what your child would do. Let them predict what happens next. This kind of back-and-forth reading is thought to support language and emotional learning.

Let your child choose sometimes, even the same book for the tenth time. Repetition helps young children learn words and story structure.

Add stories without a book. Telling a story about your own childhood, or making one up together, is something fewer than half of families do regularly, and it costs nothing.

Finally, notice what your child brings to reading. Some children want the same page over and over, some want to act out the story, and some only listen while moving around the room. All of these can be real engagement at 3 to 5. The goal is a shared, enjoyable habit, not a perfect sit-still session.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, Table 9: Time adults spent caring for household children as a primary activity, 2025 annual averages. License: Public domain (U.S. Government work).

Values are from BLS American Time Use Survey Table 9, 2025 annual averages, for the group "Child under age 6": the average hours per day spent on each childcare activity as a primary activity, for all persons 18 and over living in households with children under 18, whether or not they provided childcare that day. We converted hours to minutes (hours × 60, rounded). Earlier years are from the archived 2022, 2023, and 2024 releases; 2020 is excluded because data collection was disrupted. Home-activity percentages are from NCES, Early Childhood Program Participation: 2023 (NCES 2024-112), Table A-9, children ages 3 through 5 not yet in kindergarten.

Download the data (CSV) Reading time 2022–2025 (CSV) Home activities, ages 3–5 (NCES, CSV)

Why is reading important for children?

Reading aloud builds vocabulary, attention, and early literacy, and gives children a safe way to talk about feelings through characters. Children who are read to most days tend to do better on early literacy, numeracy, and emotion recognition, though families who read a lot also differ in other ways.

How much should I read to my child each day?

There's no magic number, but a regular 10 to 15 minutes most days is a realistic goal for many families. Short, frequent read-alouds with conversation about the story are more useful than occasional long sessions.

How much time do parents spend reading to their children?

In the 2025 American Time Use Survey, adults living with a child under 6 spent on average about 4 minutes a day reading to or with children as a main activity. That's an average over all such adults and all days, including those who did no childcare that day.

How much time do adults with young children spend on childcare each day?

In 2025, adults 18 and over living with a child under 6 spent on average 2.3 hours a day on childcare as a primary activity: 2.8 hours for women and 1.7 for men. Time spent with children while doing other things is not included.

Does telling stories count as reading?

It's a different activity, but it builds many of the same skills: language, attention, and imagination. In 2023, 42% of US preschoolers had been told a story three or more times in the past week, compared with 84% who were read to that often.

The course is built around picture books you read together, with questions about how the characters feel.

See the program

Read next

• Feelings Books for Children: How to Read Them So They Work
• Kindergarten Readiness Checklist: Skills by Area, With a Printable
• Kids shows, games, books, and toys: what the 2025–2026 data show about young children