Minutes of shared reading are a valuable investment

Reading together for a few minutes can be more than a quiet family routine. Slovenia’s Reading on Prescription initiative presents reading literacy as one of the key development issues facing modern society.

Mladinska knjiga recently introduced the national initiative with partners from the health sector. Its aim is to raise awareness of reading culture and help encourage, nurture and preserve it from an early age. Pediatricians are also involved.

The initiative says both children and adults read too little. Among the reasons it identifies are excessive use of digital devices and the attention problems associated with it. For children, low reading literacy first appears in difficulties with learning.

Reading, however, is not important only for general knowledge and a richer vocabulary. Alenka Kepic Mohar, a specialist in the field and editor-in-chief of Mladinska knjiga, discussed the issue for Književni listi. She also took part in the multi-year E-Read Cost project, which examined how digitalization is changing reading and how digital reading compares with reading in print.