Why reading?

This NYTimes article describes how the past couple of years (COVID) are associated with a troubling decline in young children meeting early reading benchmarks. I have been considering this observation and trying to explain for myself why reading would suffer more than other areas. Reading would seem an area that parents could address with their children say in comparison to math. Perhaps educators are more aware of and capable of addressing underlying skills such as phonics. Young readers vary so much in how naturally they pick up reading skills. Still, being read to and being supported in independent reading are contributions all parents can make.