Open the World: Read to a Child
Snuggling up with a toddler and a good book is far more than something that will create a happy memory; it’s something that can set up your child for success in the future.
According to the National Center for Families Learning, children who are read to daily from infancy reach kindergarten with approximately 900 hours of what they call “brain food.” Reduce the amount of reading to 30 minutes per week, and the same child is now 770 hours behind peers who were read to daily.
Why do those numbers matter? Because low literacy leads to adults who are underemployed or unemployed, families living in a generational cycle of and poverty future employment. Low literacy increases the odds of incarceration, balloons health costs for the entire nation, and even increases the risk of mortality.
In contrast, nations with the highest literacy rates (the Nordics countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland) have the lowest poverty and crimes rates in the world.
Literate children lead to literate adults. Literate adults create a healthier, more functional society. And the process begins by reading to children when they’re young — even when they can’t yet hold a book.
