Amount of time spent in talk-based activities with children aged 0 to 14 years

What it measures

Dimension: Social and emotional competencies

This indicator reports the average amount of time Canadians spend engaged in talk-based activities with children. Talk-based activities include conversation, listening to children read or reading to children, playing with a child, helping with homework, and even reprimanding behaviour. The amount of time spent in talk-based childcare peaked in the mid-2000s, and has decreased by about 4% since then.

Why this matters

Time spent in talk-based activities with children is important for child development, specifically their cognitive, linguistic, and social development. Therefore, time spent interacting with children is a positive contributor to child development, future educational success, and the wellbeing of our society.

Indicator graph

Graph displaying data from below indicator table

Indicator data table

Amount of time spent in talk-based activities with children aged 0 to 14 years

Note: Values in **bold** are actual data points retrieved from original data source. Non-bolded values are estimated.
Year	Amount of time (minutes/per day).
1994	33.0
1995	33.0
1996	33.0
1997	33.0
1998	33.0
1999	33.5
2000	34.1
2001	34.6
2002	35.1
2003	35.7
2004	36.2
2005	36.8
2006	36.5
2007	36.2
2008	36.0
2009	35.7
2010	35.4
2011	35.4
2012	35.4
2013	35.4
2014	35.4

Data source

Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, Time Use

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