There are usually two sides to every story. But with reading, this doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. The effects of reading on children are overwhelmingly positive. Not a single piece of research has been produced so far that indicates there are any negatives to children reading more. Reading has been shown to increase children’s academic performance, their empathetic abilities and moreover, it can stir up a life-long passion in them. As George R. R. Martin once said, ‘a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one’, and what could be better for children than that?
Reading for pleasure has been proven to improve academic ability in children, not just in terms of vocabulary and comprehension, but also, perhaps surprisingly, in maths. Research conducted by Dr Alice Sullivan and Matt Brown used data from the British Cohort Study, which has tracked the lives of 17,000 people born in 1970. They looked at how often individuals read for pleasure when they were children, and compared the data to test scores taken from individuals at ages 5, 10 and 16. Sullivan and Brown discovered that, of children who achieved similar test scores aged 5 and were of a similar social background, those who had read frequently scored more highly on tests aged 16. The effect of reading for pleasure on academic achievement was found to be four times greater than the benefit of having a parent with a degree. Overall, reading for pleasure has a significant and positive impact on children’s academic performance.
Academic ability is not the only beneficiary of reading for pleasure. Emotional intelligence is improved too. Raymond Mar, Associate Professor at the University of York in Canada has explained how reading can increase a person’s ability to empathise with others. When children read a fiction story, their brain automatically works at putting themselves in the character’s shoes. They learn life lessons from how the characters deal with the situations they are presented with, and how they feel. This ability to more successfully interpret the emotions of others is a skill that can be gained from reading in adulthood, as well as childhood. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castelo have produced a study, featuring 1,000 adult participants, that suggests those that read literary fiction are better at accurately identifying the emotions of others than those who read non-fiction. The social and emotional benefits are lifelong.
Perhaps the most important reason of all for children to take up reading is that it can provide them with a hobby and a passion for life. Reading is an easily accessible hobby; local libraries are a great place to find a wealth of different books for children and young adults and they also often hold social events for book lovers. For example, Lambeth council runs a reading group called ‘Chatterbox’ for children aged 7 to 12, a homework club for primary school children and a teen reading group. This activity allows children a chance to relax and stretch their imagination, to escape into a thousand different fantasy worlds that encourage their creativity. There is little to rival the simple pleasure of getting so lost in a book that you lose track of time. No doubt there are many book-loving adults out there who have treasured memories of sneaking the light back on after bedtime so they could savour a few more pages of a gripping book. It’s rare to find such an activity that can do all of these things at once, and also help children on the way to being a-well rounded, academically capable and emotionally intelligent individual.
No one has ever suggested that reading is not good for children, but the known benefits of reading seem to be constantly multiplying. From academically to socially, there does not seem to be an aspect of life that can’t be improved by a good book. If you have book-worms instead of children, or you want to begin to introduce your children to the joys of reading, the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, which is the largest in London, is happening in June. More details of festivals being held throughout the year can be found at literaryfestivals.co.uk.
Kings Tutors Club is holding a Phonics Workshop for Parents on Tuesday 26th January at 7.30pm. This is suitable for all parents and aimed at assisting children aged three years old and older.
Please do contact us at Kings Tutors if you are looking for private tuition.
Sources:
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/library-media%5Cdocuments%5CReadingforpleasurestoppress.pdf
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