The Language We Don't Realise We're Losing

Are you forgetting to read to your children?

"There is no app, no television program and no toy more powerful than

a loving adult reading a book to a child."

Some of the most treasured childhood memories aren't extravagant holidays or expensive gifts - they're the quiet moments, curled up on the lounge before bed, a favourite picture book, a familiar voice, the excitement of turning the page to discover what happens next.

For generations, reading to children has been one of the simplest and most powerful ways parents have nurtured learning, imagination and connection.

Yet in today's technology-driven world, those moments are becoming increasingly difficult to protect.

A changing childhood.

Australian families have never been busier. Both parents are juggling careers, school commitments, sporting activities and the endless demands of modern life. At the same time, smartphones, tablets and streaming services compete for every spare moment of our attention.

The result isn't that parents love their children any less - quite the opposite. Most are simply doing their very best in a world that never seems to slow down.

As our lives become more connected digitally, they become less connected verbally.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that in 2017, almost 4 in 5 Australian children aged 0–2 were read to or told stories on at least three days each week. While encouraging, it also means around one in six children were not read to at all during the previous week. Reading rates were also lower in families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.

More recently, Australian research suggests that around 1 in 4 parents now rarely or never read with their children, and 1 in 5 parents stop reading aloud before their child reaches 9 years old, even though many children wish those shared reading experiences would continue.

Reading is about much more than books.

When we read aloud, children not only learn new words, they hear the rhythm of language. They learn how conversations flow, they begin to understand humour, emotion, empathy and curiosity. They discover that words can comfort, inspire and transport us to entirely new worlds.

Reading together also strengthens the parent-child relationship. It creates uninterrupted moments of closeness in an otherwise busy day and sends a powerful message: You are worth my time. These moments cannot be downloaded.

The language we don't realise we're losing.

Long before children learn to read, they are learning language.

In fact, this learning begins before birth when babies in the womb can hear and respond to voices during the final trimester of pregnancy, becoming familiar with the sounds and rhythms of the people who love them most.

After birth, every conversation, nursery rhyme, question, story, and bedtime chat matter. Put simply, language develops through interaction.

One of the growing concerns among child development researchers isn't just children's screen time, it's what screens replace. When parents and children spend less time talking to each another, opportunities for language development naturally decrease.

Australian researchers tracking families found that for every additional minute toddlers spent exposed to screens, they heard fewer adult words, made fewer vocalisations themselves and participated in fewer conversations. By the age of three, children with higher screen exposure were hearing more than 1,000 fewer spoken words from adults each day.

Screens are wonderful servants, but poor replacements.

Technology has brought extraordinary benefits to modern families - children can learn, create, connect and explore in ways previous generations could only imagine.

The challenge comes when screens replace human interaction rather than complement it.

Australian guidelines recommend no recreational screen time for children under 2 years old, no more than 1 hour per day for children aged 2-5, and no more than 2 hours for older children outside schoolwork. Yet only a minority of Australian preschool and primary school-aged children meet these recommendations.

We also know that many Australian children are spending increasing amounts of their leisure time on screen-based activities, with participation and screen hours continuing to rise as children grow older.

Again, the issue isn't simply the screen, it's what the screen replaces - a bedtime story, dinner table conversation, a car ride filled with questions, or a cuddle on the couch. These ordinary moments are traditionally where extraordinary language development occurs.

Books build more than literacy.

Reading aloud has been linked with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, improved school readiness and a greater likelihood that children will become enthusiastic readers themselves. Children who are read to from infancy are also more likely to recognise letters, use more complex sentences and develop a lifelong enjoyment of books.

Perhaps just as importantly, stories teach children about people – they introduce kindness, courage, friendship, resilience, curiosity and hope, to name a few.

Books help children understand not only the world around them, but themselves.

A gentle invitation.

No parent is perfect, me included. Some evenings are exhausting, some days get in the way. This isn't about guilt, it's about opportunity that takes 10-15 minutes before bed. It can become the most valuable investment you make in your child's future.

Read the same book fifty times if that's what they ask, use silly voices, ask questions,

laugh together, let them turn the pages, because one day they'll be too old to ask you to read "just one more story" and when that day comes, they probably won't remember every word you read, but they'll remember how it felt to sit beside you.

And perhaps, years later, they'll pass that same gift on to their own children.

In a world that seems to move faster every day, maybe the greatest gift we can give our children isn't another device or another activity, it’s our time. Our voice, a good book, and the time to share both.

References:

· Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2022). Australia's children: Early learning – Reading to children. 

· Australia Reads. Key statistics on reading. 

· Yu, M., & Daraganova, G. (2015). Children's early home learning environment and learning outcomes in the early years of school. In The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Annual Statistical Report. (Referenced by AIHW.)

· Shoghi, A., Willersdorf, E., Braganza, L., & McDonald, M. (2013). Let's Read Literature Review. (Referenced by AIHW.)

· Galea, C. (2024). Australian-led early literacy research reported in The Australian: Bookworm babies 'do better in kindy'. 

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