Chandra Wijayanto
JAKARTA – A concerning study finding reveals that one-third of parents globally are allegedly hiding an invaluable inheritance from their children. The delay or neglect of reading books or storytelling activities from an early age potentially deprives children of vital foundations for cognitive, emotional, and social development, causing almost irreparable damage. The report also highlights how parents themselves lose precious moments in building strong bonds with their offspring.
This phenomenon, while not involving material inheritance, presents a far deeper loss. The inheritance refers to brain stimulation, vocabulary development, enhanced imagination, and empathy skills accumulated through storytelling. Children who are regularly read to tend to have better language skills, excellent academic achievement, and adaptive social skills.
Why do one-third of parents seem to overlook this crucial practice? Various factors may play a role, from work demands, lack of understanding about the importance of early literacy, to the dominance of digital devices that shift personal interaction. However, whatever the reason, the negative impacts generated are long-term and essential.
Child development experts emphasize that the early years of life are a golden window for the formation of brain neural pathways. Through stories, children not only learn to recognize letters or words but also to understand moral concepts, life values, and how to cope with various emotions. Without this exposure, their intellectual and emotional potential can be hindered.
This loss is not only experienced by the children. Parents also miss a golden opportunity to build strong emotional bonds with their children. Storytelling moments are intimate times where parents and children share laughter, questions, and imagination, creating unforgettable memories and strengthening feelings of security and affection. This forms the foundation for close family relationships in the future.
In the context of global education, initiatives to enhance early literacy continue to be promoted. However, the success of such programs heavily relies on active family participation, especially from parents. Given the development of the digital era, attention to face-to-face interaction through physical books becomes increasingly vital.
The importance of reading books to children has also been highlighted on various occasions. Professor Schettini, an education expert, underscored the importance of reading habits as one of the three keys to student success in 2026. This affirms that the foundation of literacy is laid from an early age, long before children enter formal education.
If this foundation of literacy and emotional stimulation is neglected, the impact can lead to behavioral problems. For example, the incident in Lecce where a 6-year-old child brought a knife to school, could be an alarm that there is a deep need for attention and emotional guidance that was missed during early growth. Although not directly related to the absence of storytelling, a lack of quality interaction can affect a child's emotional stability.
Governments and educational institutions in various countries need to massively campaign for the importance of family literacy. Training programs for parents on how to tell stories effectively and engagingly are also an urgent need. Furthermore, providing easy and affordable access to reading materials for all segments of society is crucial.
The future of a nation heavily depends on the quality of its generation. If one-third of the future generation is deprived of their right to this fundamental inheritance of self-development, the impact will be widely felt on the quality of human resources, innovation, and social progress.
This is a serious call for every parent to re-evaluate their priorities. Only by dedicating time, even just 15-20 minutes daily, to storytelling, can they provide the greatest and most valuable investment for their children's future. An investment that far surpasses material value.
Editorial Insight:
This phenomenon is not merely a statistic, but a reflection of shifting values in modern parenting. High-pressure lifestyles, technological penetration, and limited parenting education often lead parents to neglect fundamental practices like storytelling. The loss of this invaluable inheritance will create a generation with suboptimal cognitive and emotional capacities, potentially reducing future competitiveness and social cohesion. Systematic intervention from various parties is needed, not just education, but also the creation of an ecosystem that supports sustainable family literacy practices.
