西方发达国家的许多教育家和社会学家都在为日趋下降的小学生读写能力而担忧。在英国,几乎1/3的16岁少年仅具有14岁甚至更小年龄儿童已具有的阅读能力。在美国,将近一半的成年人承认自己是“功能性文盲”:他们看不懂各种布告或不能正确填写邮政汇款单……其原因通常称之为社会性或教育性的缺陷。英国女教师、心理学家帕梅尔·普洛塔罗认为,一切过错都是流行的带有大量图画和极少量文字的儿童书籍 Many educators and sociologists in the developed countries of the West are concerned about the decline of primary school students' ability to read and write. Almost one-third of 16-year-olds in the UK have reading skills already available only to children 14 years of age or younger. Nearly half of adults in the United States recognize themselves as “functional illiterate.” They do not read bulletins or can not properly complete postal remittances. The reason is often referred to as social or educational deficiencies. Parme Plotarou, a British female teacher and psychologist, believes that all wrongdoings are popular children's books with a large number of pictures and very few words