TOTS (Turn on the Subtitles)

Too often, brilliant ideas never see the light of day. Not because of malice, not because of malaise but simply because the right people are not connected to make it happen.

We need your help in joining the dots. We need you to make something remarkable happen.

We can all agree that literacy is a key ingredient to a happy productive life and a happy, productive society. Your literacy level dramatically impacts your career prospects(1), your earning potential and your likelihood of committing crime. In fact, you are more than three times more likely to commit a criminal offence if your literacy level is low(2). You’re also up to three times more likely to experience hospitalisation or meet an early death if you cannot read(3).

So how many people does this affect? Well, in short, it’s more than you think. In fact 28% of all UK children are not meeting the levels required to be a proficient reader. But more worryingly that number rises to 45% if you focus on just the poorer households(4). Yes, you read that correctly.

There are many different organisations trying to address this and there are literacy schemes across the UK and beyond. Many of them are excellent. We’ve seen some great schemes using innovative software, stunning books and clever targeted interventions in classrooms. The problem is that they are also expensive, and as school budgets are squeezed, so are their ability to make a difference.

A few months ago we discovered the work of an inspirational professional from Berkeley University. His name is Brij Kothari. What he said, blew us away.

He said, with a big smile: 

“If you want to teach a nation to read: Just turn on the subtitles”

He proceeded to show us a mountain of data (academics are rather fond of evidence it would appear).

Studies from Belgium, Spain, Holland and many from United States & India5. They all told the same story:

If you turn on the subtitles for children's’ TV programmes (particularly between the ages of 6 and 10) it DOUBLES their chance of becoming a proficient reader.

Apparently, we’re not the first people to be surprised and impressed by this. 

Here’s Bill Clinton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juZOlmf9APk), Gordon Brown and Prof Robert Vanderplank (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZnrHmYUPw) all talking about it. We echo President Clinton’s words in particular:

“Same Language Subtitling doubles the number of functional readers among primary school children. A small thing that has a staggering impact on people’s lives”

We took all this mountain of paperwork to the UK National Literacy Trust and asked the question “Can this really be that impactful?”. After thanking us for cluttering their office, they went through it with a fine tooth comb. All of it. A month later Jonathan Douglas their Director came back to us:

“The international evidence base suggesting that children respond well to having subtitles on when they’re watching television is compelling. We would absolutely support automatic same-language subtitling on children’s TV programmes.”

So at this juncture you may be asking why, if it’s so impactful, don’t we have subtitles on every children’s TV programme already?

Well we do, for broadcast television. They’re just not switched on.

Why?

Because if they are not on by default, people simply don’t use them. They don’t know it makes a difference.

Brij confirmed it. Not only do parents not know, more importantly neither (in the most part) do the broadcasters. Broadcasters such as the BBC, Sky, Netflix, Amazon and others have no reason to trawl through countless academic papers to find gems like this. They are too busy making amazing content.

But perhaps, if they knew the impact they could have, the goodwill they would generate (not to mention parents feeling more positive about watching the fifth episode of Peppa Pig in a row) perhaps, just perhaps, they might consider switching the subtitles on by default for kids’ TV programmes? If they did so, it would improve the lives of millions - with a single flick of a switch(6).

So here’s where we need your help....

Introduce us. Introduce us to the decision makers at these broadcasters so we can show them what Brij and others have found and then they can make a decision. One that will hopefully benefit millions of children. Oh and in the meantime, tell anyone you know to turn on the subtitles. They’ll thank you for it.

Thanks

Henry & Oli, on behalf of Brij and the dozens of brilliant academics who have run countless

experiments and worked tirelessly on this idea over the last decade.

Who are we?

Oli Barrett MBE and Henry Warren are old friends who share a passion for finding innovative solutions to complex social problems. Both have founded multiple businesses and charities over the years. Over a few meetings, they decided to get together and try and make TOTS actually happen (alongside their day jobs) because, well it’s such a no brainer - it just has to be done, right?

End Notes & Links

1. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/literacy-changes-lives-2014-new-perspective-health-employment-and-crime/

2. https://www.gov.uk/…/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-…

3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/460710/4b_Health_Literacy-Briefing.pdf

4. https://www.gov.uk/…/national-curriculum-assessments-key-st…

5. https://drive.google.com/open…

6. We know it’s not really a switch, but you get the point