More than 90 percent of Taiwanese children spend leisure time on watching television, going online and playing video games, with less than 1 percent on reading, painting and playing chess, a survey by restaurant KFC found yesterday.
And the fast-food giant has a strategy: hiring employees to play with children at KFC outlets.
Of the 94 percent of respondents who did negligible or no reading, 56.2 percent spent their leisure time watching TV, 20.9 percent used computers and 16.7 percent played video games, the survey said.
"According to international research on the reading capability of children released in November, Taiwan was listed last, with less than 1 percent of children aged between three and 10 in the habit of reading," said Su Lan (蘇蘭), a specialist in child education.
"Children in Taiwan spend too much time on activities that involve less family interaction," Su said.
The report also said that 85 percent of the nation's parents think that playing more with their children would help improve their overall development.
Unfortunately, only 26.4 percent of the parents could find time to regularly play with their children.
It is to this group of parents that KFC is offering its services.
"KFC has built up a more than 300-strong team of employees to play with kids at each KFC store since 2005, bringing joy and learning to more than 200,000 children each year," KFC marketing director Kitty Liu (劉家潾) said yesterday.
"This team will be the biggest expense for KFC for the SMART Little Children event this year," Liu said, though she declined to provide figures.
The SMART Little Children activity, which includes activities such as reading stories and poems, is free and takes place at KFC stores nationwide each Saturday and Sunday, except for those located in department stores and large outlets, Liu said.
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