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The parents, who had children either of primary school age or younger, said their children were spending on average three times as much of their time "on screen" as they were reading traditional books.

Every day, on average, they said their children watched TV for 90 minutes, played computer games for 42 minutes and did other online activities for 28 minutes, compared to 44 minutes reading paper books.

Literacy experts say one of the key ways of helping children to learn to read and write well is to give them a love of books. They say the youngest children can enjoy looking at simple books, being told about what is going on or hearing the sounds of the words and rhymes and that this ultimately helps them understand the meaning of words and develop their speech and language. Out of 400 teachers asked, 94% said children were not spending enough time reading for pleasure outside the classroom.

Of the parents questioned, one fifth said they had waited until their child was two or older to read them their first story.

The survey, carried out by YouGov, commissioned by Pearson to mark the launch of its Enjoy Reading campaign, involved 2,008 parents of two- to 11-year-olds questioned in August and 410 UK secondary school English teachers questioned in March and April.