Avoid screen time, talk with your kids early to develop their reading skills

You might have seen the troubling news that reading scores are at a historic low, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress , also known as the nation’s report card. In Georgia, roughly 70% of children are not reading proficiently in fourth grade.

These numbers aren’t just statistics; they represent real children whose futures are vulnerable because of their inability to read proficiently. Students not reading proficiently by fourth grade are at high risk of dropping out of high school, experiencing low employment and incarceration .

Research on reading interventions has shown that school-age children can be taught to decode words — much like the familiar “sound it out” approach many of us learned decades ago. But decoding alone is not sufficient.

Children must be