Once upon a time, parents spent their leisure time with the children by telling stories, especially with the bedtime stories. But now the literacy skills are often taken for granted, and as a result, reading has become difficult for both adults and children.

It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a child to inspire a village.

– Emma Mactaggart, The Child Writes Fund

As literacy is a gateway skill for all of us, the ability to read empowers the children to join in the conversation, social connection and provides an opportunity that is the key to every child’s future success. Reading has enormous benefits – not only do communication skills improve but the more the children read, the regions of their brains involved in spatial navigation and learning new information increase in size and improve their overall memory.

No matter what else we tested for the results show that being read to remains an important factor that is not explained away by other factors such as the parents’ education. Children of 4 – 5 years old who are read to 3-4 times a week have reading ages 6 months ahead of children read to once or twice a week. Reading to children nearly every day almost doubles their progress to one year ahead of the group.

— Professor Guyonne Kalb, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research, Australia

We encourage you to celebrate the International Read To Me Day on 19 March with us. It is essential for all of us to take time to read to the children each day. Encourage them to read a good storybook to improve their knowledge. Make pleasure reading a part of an everyday routine activity in the life of any child. You can remind the adults too, to take time to read to their children. Be a support to someone to improve their vocabulary and creativity by reading to them.