My quest to get youngsters off devices… and studying extra books

TV presenter Kirstie Allsop criticised how a five-year previous ate his breakfast in entrance of an iPad – and acquired hammered by hundreds of messages on-line warning her to thoughts her personal enterprise.

Come on, guys. Get actual.

We dwell in a technology-driven atmosphere the place some nine-year-olds are accessing hard-core porn on their smartphones. We have to supply kids one thing else – no screens concerned.

On Tuesday, September 9, dad and mom, grandparents, childminders, public well being nurses, midwives, and anybody else focused on studying with kids for enjoyable can attend a public assembly within the picturesque surrounds of Dunmanway Public Library in West Cork.

The title of the occasion: ‘Read Together: Open Their World’.

The mission: Encourage dad and mom to learn with kids; firstly, as a result of it’s nice enjoyable, and secondly, as a result of there are important advantages to frequently studying with kids from three months of age.

Target viewers: Mams. Dads. Grannies, Grandads. Child-minders, and so forth.

Issues to be addressed: Why learn together with your baby? For how lengthy? How usually? The greatest time? Which books?

A sequence of quick talks from specialists; academics from main and second-level training, a dad or mum, a Children’s Librarian, an skilled in kids’s literature – will give the viewers insights from the frontline.

You’ll hear how studying together with your baby is of profit to each you and your baby.

You’ll perceive how studying together with your baby can’t be solely the duty of the class-teacher (as a result of the time constraints, sources, and a crammed curriculum merely don’t go away house for it). How studying for enjoyable frequently with our youngsters is all the way down to us, the dad and mom, grandparents, childminders …

Some enjoyable info:

• Reading with kids as younger as one or two has long-term advantages by way of larger achievement in studying and maths.
• Reading has wonderful knock-on results by way of a baby’s grasp of literacy – studying, comprehension and writing.
• It helps them navigate day-to-day life higher as a result of it helps kids suppose and articulate.
• Children who learn have a richer vocabulary, have a tendency to have the ability to categorical themselves higher, and have a stronger grasp of language.
• It’s extraordinarily good for a kid’s creativeness.
• It improves kids’s means to suppose issues by means of logically, and cause issues out, and their means to focus and focus.
• Research has proven kids to be happier and extra self-confident learners after they learn informally at house.

Put merely, studying for enjoyable makes the thoughts work. Studies have discovered kids who learn for enjoyable have fewer socio-emotional difficulties.

Reading additionally helps develop empathy – studying about different kids and their very totally different lives opens up a baby’s world-view and helps them empathise with the plight of others.

There are advantages for the grownup additionally: studying with a child, toddler or baby is a approach to strengthen your bond and assist nurture their means to work together with you and be sociable.

Above all, it’s nice craic. Ask any dad or mum who reads to their child in regards to the toddler’s laughing, pointing and babbling on the e-book!

Yet, within the tsunami of tech we dwell in now, we’re forgetting in regards to the significance of studying for pleasure with kids.

The 2025 ‘What Kids Are Reading’ report studied the studying habits of over 1.2 million college students throughout 6,700 faculties within the UK and Republic of Ireland. It revealed that total studying enjoyment amongst kids and younger individuals has declined to its lowest degree in 20 years and there’s a important decline within the share of youngsters and younger individuals who say they take pleasure in studying. In 2025, solely 32.7% of these aged 8 to 18 reported having fun with studying.

Children’s Books Ireland, an organisation which promotes studying for pleasure with and by kids, warns of falling charges in studying enjoyment and e-book possession amongst kids and younger individuals.

More than one in 5 kids beneath aged 4 are NOT being learn to, research present, and 24% of Irish youngsters (girls and boys) usually are not studying for pleasure. The common baby now owns 20 books in comparison with 30 two years in the past.

Research discovered 21% of fogeys consider a very powerful issue when selecting a e-book for his or her baby is that it teaches them one thing – by no means! Reading is simply one thing you and a baby can do collectively for enjoyable.

I spoke to main academics, schoolchildren and oldsters throughout the first sector. Teachers expressed concern that an excessive amount of display screen time has destructive results by way of focus, literacy, vocabulary, creativeness, an incapacity to take pleasure in studying materials, empathy, creativity and look at of the broader world.

They consider younger kids are allowed an excessive amount of entry to units and spend an excessive amount of time on Gaming/Youtube movies and so forth.

They really feel a necessity for fast gratification develops in response to a lot entry to units from early childhood. This can steadily have an effect on a baby’s means to develop the main target, persistence or focus span to learn.

Teachers felt the significance of fogeys studying with kids for pleasure deserves to be prioritised much more within the house than it’s.

They advise studying with infants and babies lengthy earlier than they begin faculty, warning that many coming into Junior Infants now are unable to show a web page in a e-book or recite a nursery rhyme. I spoke with schoolchildren on the senior ranges of main faculty. Some didn’t learn in any respect. One boy remarked that there have been no books in his home.

Children who did learn for enjoyable, nonetheless, cherished it. They mentioned they discovered it each thrilling and immensely stress-free. One boy mentioned studying cheered him up if he felt unhappy or down. A number of mentioned they didn’t have many books within the house.

Parents I spoke to felt household life has develop into overloaded with too many actions; that issues wanted to decelerate.

So, are we not pushing an open door right here – in any case, who wouldn’t take pleasure in sitting down for a couple of minutes with their baby and a ravishing storybook?

• Dr Áilín Quinlan is a journalist and former main trainer with an curiosity in kids’s literature.
• ‘Read Together: Open Their World’ takes place at 6.30pm at Dunmanway Public Library, Dunmanway, Co Cork. Spaces are restricted. Please contact Dunmanway Library on dunmanwaylibrary@corkcoco.ie to order a spot.