It was a happy old year for me, especially in the lead-up to Christmas when I spent some time with a 90-year-old aunt.
She reminded me of how lucky I was to have had a father who spent so much time with me in my young years.
It was an epiphany.
A few years ago I spent some time with a local high school attempting to come up with a strategy to halt faltering literacy skills.
It has nagged me that I never quite nailed the solution, although my preliminary recommendations were implemented and results are improving.
But there is a long-term solution that starts well before Year 7 and I’ve been carrying it around with me all my life.
Conversations with my aunt revealed it.
A recent Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study in Melbourne has found that dads reading to their toddlers results in children with better language and literacy skills.
