Barclay, D. (1959). Reading. In D. Barclay, Understanding the city child: A book for parents (pp. 81-86). New York, NY, US: Franklin Watts.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14327-012
The city child grows up surrounded by words. Words shine out at him in gold leaf and neon, from store fronts and billboards, from street signs and truck sides, from countless packages on grocery shelves, from labels on cages in the zoo. Newspapers arrive, mysteriously, at his door each morning. Corner newsstands are loaded with magazines, some intended even for him. Books are on display in shop windows, on the counters of some supermarkets, and spread in hodgepodge piles or tasteful arrangements about his own home. Well-stocked libraries are available to him, often with special story hours planned to show him early the fun and interest to be found in books. The middle-class city parent is likely, as well, to be "word-oriented." The work of those in most professions and in executive jobs is, as one sociologist has put it, more apt to involve the manipulation of "symbols" than the direct management of people or of objects. In all the "symbols" involved in their work — plans, orders, legal briefs, research reports — words are of the essence. Reading, then, although a skill of great importance to children everywhere, is of special significance to the city youngster. Indeed, for most, it represents the most valuable single recreational and educational interest they can acquire. Reading must not be overvalued to such a point that opportunities for real experience are slighted. In fact, the ability to read with real understanding is directly related to the amount of active experience children have had and assimilated — experience with objects, with various aspects of their environment, with other people. Although a tendency toward too much dependence on books must be avoided, then, books and reading serve a vital purpose in the city child's life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)