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'One in four children' use touch screen to read
Just over a quarter of children (26%) use a touch screen at home to read stories, a literacy charity has found.
The National Literacy Trust (NLT) found pre-school children were more likely to read every day if they had access to smartphones and tablets, as well as physical books.
- The study also found children were still more likely to read using a physical book, with almost all (95.2%) looking at print-based stories on a typical week.
- Children were more likely to enjoy reading if they used both books and a touch screen than reading books alone (77.4% compared to 70.8%).
- Parents were keen to give their youngsters a head start in understanding modern technology. Nearly three quarters (73.7%) agreed it was important for their child to learn to use technology from an early age.
Read: Poor children 'twice as likely' to read daily with tablet
Carney to answer questions on currency union
Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney will meet with the Treasury Select Committee to answer questions on the "economics of currency unions" amid debate over the possible implications of a Scottish vote for independence.
Chancellor George Osborne has already ruled out a currency union between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.
First Minister Alex Salmond's Scottish Government wants to create a "sterling zone" with the rest of the UK if there is a Yes vote in the break-away referendum.
Mr Carney said in a speech in January that an effective currency union would force a newly-independent Scotland to hand over some national sovereignty in a similar way to how this is done in the eurozone.
"Any arrangement to retain sterling in an independent Scotland would need to be negotiated between the Westminster and Scottish parliaments," he said. "The Bank of England would implement whatever monetary arrangements were put in place."
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Poor children 'twice as likely' to read daily with tablet
Poor children under the age of five were twice as likely to read every day if they had access to a smartphone or tablet, a report has found.
Read: Children's education affected by 'slow internet speeds'
Read: UN warns of global 'learning crisis'
Youngsters are more likely to enjoy looking at a book and be reading at the right level for their age if they have access to the new technology, according to the study.
Research carried out by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and education firm Pearson pointed to growing literacy among three to five-year-olds who used both touch screen and basic print technologies.
The findings, based on a poll of around 1,000 parents, found pre-schoolers from lower socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to look at stories using touch screen technology on a daily basis than those from more privileged homes (16% compared to 7.2%).
The study concludes: "Technology offers a route into reading for disadvantaged three to five-year-old children. Of children who have a touch screen at home, children of lower socio-economic status are twice as likely to look at stories daily."
Read: 'Almost 30%' of children unfamiliar with religious tales
Labour appeals over government care bill
Labour is appealing for Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs to help block measures it says will give ministers sweeping powers to close hospitals.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said clause 119 of the Care Bill - due to be debated in the Commons today - would allow Jeremy Hunt to "ride roughshod" over local residents' concerns.
Council tax benfits 'perverse'
Changes to council tax benefits have weakened work incentives for almost a quarter of a million people in England, some of whom stand to lose as much as 97p out of every extra pound they earn, a parliamentary report has found.
The chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, branded the outcome "fundamentally perverse" saying that the decision to give local authorities powers to design support schemes for themselves has delivered the opposite result to what the Government intended
Council tax benefit was formerly administered nationally, costing taxpayers £4.3 billion in 2011/12 as five million people claimed support.
From April 2013, responsibility was transferred to 326 local authorities in England, with the Government providing funding of £3.7 billion - a cut of £414 million, or 10% of the predicted total budget if the scheme had remained unchanged.
Pregnant women 'drink too much'
More than half of women drink more than the recommended limits during the first three months of pregnancy, a study has suggested.
Some 53% of women drank more than the upper limit of two units a week during the first trimester, with middle class women are more likely than women from other classes to drink more than the recommended limits during pregnancy, figures show.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, examined 1,200 women in Leeds who filled out food frequency questionnaires, including information on alcohol consumption during the month before conception and the three trimesters of pregnancy.
If a woman drank more than two units a week during the first three months of pregnancy they are twice as likely to have a baby who was born "small for gestational age" when compared to non-drinkers, the researchers found.
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