Some years back, I was having dinner with a group at a Science Fiction convention. Talk at the table turned to declining literacy. I asked "How many of you had parents who read to you when you were kids?"
Every hand was raised.
It made sense. My mother read to me as a child, and I got the concept well before I could actually do it myself. She recounted in later years trying to skip over parts to get me to bed and back to her chores faster, and I'd point unerringly at the skipped segment and say "No, Mommy! You missed
this part!"
I've always read anything that didn't read me first, and a good bit that did, and I know where I got the habit.
I contrasted that with my SO's nephews, the sons of her older brother. Dad was a voracious reader (and an SF fan), but he didn't read to the kids. Mom wasn't a reader, and neither did she. Dad would come home from work and plunk himself in front of the TV until it was time for dinner. Guess what habit the kids picked up? (I watched the older one start to go into a trance as soon as the TV was turned on.)
Reading is a necessary skill, but too many people never learn to view it as a pleasure. Reading is a chore they do because they must, and not something they do for fun. Getting kids to read, and see reading as enjoyable, is an example parents have to set, and set
early. You can sometimes count on schools to teach kids
how to read. You
can't count on them teaching the kids to
want to.
One question raised here is the role of an ereader in the process. In the earliest phases, not much. A kid too young to read is a poor candidate for an electronic gadget. Actual physical paper books are a better fit. They're more durable, easier to replace, and turning pages is less of a challenge to developing motor skills.
As they get a bit older, you can start reading to them from a reader, and they can get the idea it's something that can be used to read. After a while, you can let them try it themselves under supervision, showing them how to select a book and read it. When they get old enough to ask for one of their own, you can start to think about getting them one. But no hurry.
First, you want them to reach the point where they
want their own reader.
______
Dennis