I am a HUGE fan of reading! One of my favourite parts from when I was an elementary teacher and now as a parent, is getting to read to children. One of my favourite teaching roles was being a teacher librarian when I was teaching in Australia, I host a monthly book club, I have yearly reading goals… You get the picture.
What Are the Benefits of Reading? I’m so glad you asked!
- Reading helps to develop empathy and foster connection with perspective taking
Reading builds empathy! It helps us understand what others’ feelings and experiences are in the world, and helps us consider things from another perspective. Practicing this as a reader transfers to real life situations, giving us the ability to hear and consider alternate points of view, and hold space for other people’s beliefs and personal experiences, even if they differ from our own. Fiction and biographies are particularly great for building this critical tool for connection.
- Reading improves critical thinking skills
We live in the age of instant information: search engines, ChatGPT and AI. While these can be valuable tools, they aren’t always factual (1 in 6 sources AI provides is from another AI source) and they don’t promote critical thinking. This is something that is imperitive for children to learn, especially now! When children (and adults) spend time reading, they strengthen their ability to take perspectives and to problem solve outside of their own life. Finding solutions to a character’s problem is a natural part of active reading and translates into their own life skill.
- Reading builds vocabulary authentically and enhances conversation skills
While this may sound like this is for children (and it is!) it is more and more just as much for everyone else as well. Reading expands vocabulary, and reading dialogue transfers into how we converse. We become better communicators!
- Reading teaches social skills and allows for “rehearsal” of universal experiences
Non-fiction certainly has it’s place in our learning, but fiction allows for a whole different set of skills to be developed and strengthened. Did you know that reading lights up the centers in our brain as if we are actually experiencing them?! Movies don’t do this! This means that children and adults get to practice going through certain feelings and experiences via a character, as a practice run for our own lives. Again, this develops skills such as empathy.
- Reading strengthens cognitive processes
Engaging in reading consistently bolsters cognitive processes because it exercises our brains, enhancing critical thinking and analytical skills. Thinking through complex plots or understanding character motivations helps to foster problem-solving skills, encouraging readers to make connections and draw conclusions. Over time this can lead to improved memory retention, better concentration, and overall, more capacity for in-depth reading comprehension.
- Reading is important because it helps to build background knowledge
Decades of research has shown that when it comes to reading unfamiliar texts, or reading to learn (as children experience in the upper elementary grades), the more background knowledge they have on a subject, the easier it will be for them to anchor new information to concepts they already have some knowledge of. This is sometimes referred to as Schema Theory, the idea that “comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader’s background knowledge and the text.” The more you know, the easier you can learn new information.
- Reading can help reduce stress for all ages
Did you know that reading for as little as six minutes can decrease stress up to 68%?! When you read, you distract your brain from the problems of the day. This allows your muscles to relax, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate. Reading a book is more effective at reducing stress than listening to music or even taking a walk. Studies on brain activity while reading tells us that reading can have the same effects on our brain and body as meditation in many ways. The brain is in a focused state, very similar to a mindfulness practice, reducing stress levels and promoting relaxation. Sign me up!
- Reading can improve sleep
We all know that looking at our phones before bed is no recommended. Alternatively, reading is an activity that works your brain without active physical stimulation, because you can read while lying down. It slowly relaxes your body and mind into sleep.
- Reading helps to build and maintain memory
When you read, your brain actively encodes and stores information, creating new connections between neurons, and builds white matter which affects concentration and communication between brain cells. Visualizing scenes, characters, and details from a story engages the brain’s sensory regions, enhancing memory retention through vivid mental imagery. Additionally, the act of repeatedly encountering words, phrases, and concepts while reading reinforces memory pathways, leading to improved recall and retention of information in the long term.
- Reading strengthens writing skills
Reading and writing are impossible to separate from one another. The practice of one undeniably improves the skills of the other. For children, reading offers them a window into how authors write. It offers a study in different genres, styles, tones, and use of different vocabulary words. It can also be a creative spark for children who otherwise might have difficulty coming up with their own ideas to write about.
- Reading also strengthens language and communication skills
Researchers note that reading and speaking involve many of the same parts of the brain. In fact, reading is one of the most effective ways of boosting word recognition and comprehension, and of learning a foreign language.
- Reading builds sturdier problem solving skills
To solve problems in everyday life, we have to identify the issue clearly, analyze the causes, and come up with creative solutions. Reading teaches all of these skills! Reading comprehension is all about understanding what’s happening in a story, then analyzing and evaluating the events and characters’ actions. Plus, when we read, we’re exposed to new ideas constantly, which can help us innovate when we need to solve problems.
- Reading can provide a sense of support and belonging—particularly for those who might feel “on the outside”
As connected as we are these days, it’s also easier than ever to feel alone. For kids who are going through a hard time (at school, with friends, with a teacher, or with their parents or caregivers) this is especially true. One of the things reading offers is relatability and a reminder that we are not the first or only person to feel this way. Whether fiction or nonfiction, stories help us to process our own experiences—to feel seen and understood when this is missing in our real lives.
Here are a few books that I have read this summer that I would highly recommend:
- Theo of Golden, Allen Levi
- We Did Ok, Kid, Anthony Hopkins
- The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, Gabor Mate
- Whistler, Ann Patchet
- Mad Mabel, Sally Hepworth
- How to Read a Book, Monica Wood
- The Correspondent, Virginia Evans
- Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo
- My Friends, Fredrik Backman
- Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson
Enjoy!!
Gabrielle Hone, Registered Psychologist
