My quest to get kids off gadgets... and reading more books

TV presenter Kirstie Allsop criticised how a five-year old ate his breakfast in front of an iPad – and got hammered by thousands of messages online warning her to mind her own business.

Come on, guys. Get real.

We live in a technology-driven environment where some nine-year-olds are accessing hard-core porn on their smartphones. We have to offer children something else – no screens involved.

On Tuesday, September 9, parents, grandparents, childminders, public health nurses, midwives, and anyone else interested in reading with children for fun can attend a public meeting in the picturesque surrounds of Dunmanway Public Library in West Cork.

The name of the event: ‘Read Together: Open Their World’.

The mission: Encourage parents to read with children; firstly, because it’s great fun, and secondly, because there are significant benefits to regularly reading with children from three months of age.

Target audience: Mams. Dads. Grannies, Grandads. Child-minders, etc.

Issues to be addressed: Why read with your child? For how long? How often? The best time? Which books?

A series of short talks from experts; teachers from primary and second-level education, a parent, a Children’s Librarian, an expert in children’s literature – will give the audience insights from the frontline.

You’ll hear how reading with your child is of benefit to both you and your child.

You’ll understand how reading with your child cannot be solely the responsibility of the class-teacher (because the time constraints, resources, and a crammed curriculum simply don’t leave space for it). How reading for fun regularly with our children is down to us, the parents, grandparents, childminders …

Some fun facts:

• Reading with children as young as one or two has long-term benefits in terms of higher achievement in reading and maths.
• Reading has excellent knock-on effects in terms of a child’s grasp of literacy – reading, comprehension and writing.
• It helps them navigate day-to-day life better because it helps children think and articulate.
• Children who read have a richer vocabulary, tend to be able to express themselves better, and have a stronger grasp of language.
• It’s extremely good for a child’s imagination.
• It improves children’s ability to think things through logically, and reason things out, and their ability to focus and concentrate.
• Research has shown children to be happier and more self-confident learners when they read informally at home.

Put simply, reading for fun makes the mind work. Studies have found children who read for fun have fewer socio-emotional difficulties.

Reading also helps develop empathy – reading about other children and their very different lives opens up a child’s world-view and helps them empathise with the plight of others.

There are benefits for the adult also: reading with a baby, toddler or child is a way to strengthen your bond and help nurture their ability to interact with you and be sociable.

Above all, it’s great craic. Ask any parent who reads to their baby about the infant’s laughing, pointing and babbling at the book!

Yet, in the tsunami of tech we live in now, we’re forgetting about the importance of reading for pleasure with children.

The 2025 ‘What Kids Are Reading’ report studied the reading habits of over 1.2 million students across 6,700 schools in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It revealed that overall reading enjoyment among children and young people has declined to its lowest level in 20 years and there is a significant decline in the percentage of children and young people who say they enjoy reading. In 2025, only 32.7% of those aged 8 to 18 reported enjoying reading.

Children’s Books Ireland, an organisation which promotes reading for pleasure with and by children, warns of falling rates in reading enjoyment and book ownership amongst children and young people.

More than one in five children under aged four are NOT being read to, studies show, and 24% of Irish teenagers (boys and girls) are not reading for pleasure. The average child now owns 20 books compared to 30 two years ago.

Research found 21% of parents believe the most important factor when choosing a book for their child is that it teaches them something – not at all! Reading is just something you and a child can do together for fun.

I spoke to primary teachers, schoolchildren and parents across the primary sector. Teachers expressed concern that too much screen time has negative effects in terms of concentration, literacy, vocabulary, imagination, an inability to enjoy reading material, empathy, creativity and view of the wider world.

They believe young children are allowed too much access to devices and spend too much time on Gaming/Youtube videos etc.

They feel a need for instant gratification develops in response to so much access to devices from early childhood. This can gradually affect a child’s ability to develop the focus, patience or concentration span to read.

Teachers felt the importance of parents reading with children for pleasure deserves to be prioritised far more in the home than it is.

They advise reading with babies and small children long before they start school, warning that many coming into Junior Infants now are unable to turn a page in a book or recite a nursery rhyme. I spoke with schoolchildren at the senior levels of primary school. Some didn’t read at all. One boy remarked that there were no books in his house.

Children who did read for fun, however, loved it. They said they found it both exciting and immensely relaxing. One boy said reading cheered him up if he felt sad or down. A few said they didn’t have many books in the home.

Parents I spoke to felt family life has become overloaded with too many activities; that things needed to slow down.

So, are we not pushing an open door here – after all, who wouldn’t enjoy sitting down for a few minutes with their child and a beautiful storybook?

• Dr Áilín Quinlan is a journalist and former primary teacher with an interest in children’s literature.
• ‘Read Together: Open Their World’ takes place at 6.30pm at Dunmanway Public Library, Dunmanway, Co Cork. Spaces are limited. Please contact Dunmanway Library on dunmanwaylibrary@corkcoco.ie to reserve a place.