Reader’s Opinion | We see the decline in children’s reading skills every day in our work

Junior vocabulary has weakened, making presentations is challenging and children need more and more visuals to support reading. They cannot “paint” a picture of the story in their mind, but they have to see a picture.

International Literacy Day is celebrated today, September 8. It is important to highlight the importance of the day, because we professionals in early childhood education and training, for example nannies and school guidance counselors, see the deterioration of children’s reading skills every day in our work: Fairy tales must be explained to children openly, and at school the deterioration of reading skills is visible in all subjects. Poor reading skills also affect writing skills, and difficulties in understanding instructions are encountered in skills subjects.

The passion for reading starts from childhood. Early childhood education and training professionals play an important role in developing and supporting literacy, without forgetting the importance of the home. At our own workplaces in kindergarten and elementary school, we have made reading a happy thing: for example, in the kindergarten we celebrate children’s birthdays with the help of donated books from the local library. At school, on the other hand, we enjoy reading cakes, that is, a cake is baked for children who have learned to read to enjoy together with the whole class.

In Finland, for a long time, we could be proud of schoolchildren’s good Pisa results, but in recent years they have weakened. The Ministry of Education and Culture described the 2022 Pisa results in their report as “very worrying”, and a particularly significant collapse occurred precisely in reading skills.

Versatile literacy is a pathway to all learning, and the basis of literacy is created in early childhood education and elementary school. However, this does not happen by itself. Without sufficient resources, even supporting reading skills will inevitably fall halfway.

Marika Etelämäki

early childhood education nurse

Marika Keränen

guidance counselor

Ammatiliitto Jyty education and training professional sub-group

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