Dear Sir,

Further to the Opinion article written by Stephen Kenny in The Royal Gazette on April 23, I would like to offer unqualified support.

After 60 years practising optometry, I had numerous children who had reading problems and a large number were from families who did not read to them.

I disagree with Dr Kenny when he says “with a parent or caregiver”. In my humble opinion, the parents must pay attention to their children and take the responsibility of that special five to ten-minute period each evening.

If the caregiver does the reading, then the bonding will be with the caregiver. While holding, cuddling the child and reading, the child will not only hear but feel the resonance of the voice, which in turn establishes a bond.

Parents, do not leave reading to your child until they are 2 or 3 years old – start when they are just a few months old. As Dr Kenny rightly says, when you hold and cuddle a baby a bond develops between the parent and the baby.

I, and my wife, would read to our sons every evening and by the time they were 2 years old, they knew the stories backwards and would chastise us if we changed the story.

By the time they attended school, they were able to read. We continued this whenever we babysat our grandchildren, who not only became competent readers, some of them quite avid.

I asked one daughter-in-law which Harry Potter book I could buy for my 7-year-old grandson's birthday, only to be told he had read them all. The time we had spent with our sons, who in turn spent time with their children, paid lifelong dividends.

It is the responsibility of both parents to spend a few minutes each day reading to their children, and to encourage them to read a few words back to mum and dad when they are 3 or 4. We found reading after bath time and just before they were put to bed enabled them to go to sleep knowing they were loved.

Keep up the good work, Dr Kenny!

ANTONY SIESE

Paget