Reader’s Opinion | Parents are also responsible for their children’s reading skills

in Finland children’s and young people’s reading skills have weakened to such an extent that one can already start talking about a reading crisis. In the discussion, the general tone often turns to blaming society, the school and, ultimately, teachers or immigrant children, but one key thing is forgotten: the parents’ responsibility.

With teachers and schools play a central role in teaching children basic skills such as reading, so it is natural that more is demanded of schools and society. At the same time, however, we forget that literacy is a multi-step process, where at school we learn to recognize and pronounce letters and words, but deeper literacy – the ability to understand, analyze and internalize text – is largely built on the combined effect of home and school.

At the beginning of the 21st century in Finland, reading was still an important part of culture and everyday life. Books were popular, and libraries played a central role in Finns’ reading habits. Today, the situation has changed: leisure reading among young people and adults has decreased, and digital content has replaced traditional books. The end result of this development can be seen in studies where the reading skills of young people have weakened significantly compared to previous generations.

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Digital content has replaced traditional books.

Although school provides an important foundation for the development of reading skills, it does not eliminate the fact that family reading habits still have a significant impact on children’s reading skills. In today’s society, children are increasingly exposed to digital content, so it is the parents’ task to make reading a part of the child’s everyday life. Several studies support this view. Children who are read to regularly develop a wider vocabulary and a better understanding of text structures.

When we are talking about children’s and young people’s impaired reading skills, maybe the core of the problem is not in the school or the teachers, but in the changed relationship of families to reading. Instead of blaming the school for children’s reading skills, we should look at what practices that support reading have changed in families. Parent, when was the last time you read to your child or when he saw you read?

The child only spends about eight hours a day at school, the rest of the time he is the responsibility of the parents. If there is no reading at home and no space for books, is it any wonder that the end result is a generation with poor reading skills?

Maria Miala

deputy commissioner (kok), Helsinki

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