Wellbeing Insights

The Science Behind Raising Readers

Literacy is one of the main pillars of early education.  There’s a big focus on learning the ABCs, strengthening comprehension skills, and understanding literary devices.  Being able to read and understand text is a foundational skill that enables learning in all other subject areas.  Additionally, when children are exposed to book reading from an early age, it begins a ‘causal spiral’ – they more they are exposed to books, the greater their reading skills, which in turn encourages them to read more, culminating in greater academic outcomes.  But to focus on only the academic angle is a pretty narrow view of the benefits of reading.  Adult booklovers innately know that there’s a lot more to the benefits of reading than just academic achievement.  Here are just a few of the benefits:

Reading is an antidote to stress

For example, a study of children hospitalized in the ICU foundthat listening to a story for just 30 minutes reduced their levels of cortisol (stress hormone)and increased their levels of oxytocin (the love hormone).  Similarly, over a whole academicyear, a study of college students found that recreational reading was associated with reducedpsychological distress.  In other words, reading can help people cope with mental and physical health challenges by boosting resilience to stress.

Reading allows us to connect meaningfully with our fellow humans

Neuroscientists have determined that reading fiction provides readers with the opportunity to strengthen a certain neural network, which in turn makes them better at being able to use theory of mind capabilities(being able to consider the mental state of others).

Reading makes us happier

A study of older adults found that frequent fiction readers report greater life satisfaction and greater positive affective well-being.

Reading helps us live longer! 

A longitudinal study of 3675 participants found that book readers experience a survival advantage. This line from the study sums it up best: “The benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.  ”Clearly, a love for reading leads to a much more fulfilling life and that’s something we definitely want to pass on to our children!  So how can we implement a reading culture in our home?  Read together!  This is the easiest and most effective way to encourage reading in kids of any age. Reading aloud has a strong and long-lasting effect on reading and cognitive skills. Learning to love reading is magical.

AUTHOR

Dr Justin Coulson is a dad to 6 daughters and grandfather to 1 granddaughter. He is the parenting expert and co-host of Channel Nine’s Parental Guidance, and he and his wife host Australia’s #1 podcast for parents and family: The Happy FamiliesPodcast. He has written 9 books about families and parenting. 

For further detailsvisit happyfamilies.com.au.