Reading Books Is Like Superfood for Children's Brains

Young people are reading less and less for enjoyment. Yet, according to a new study, this practise is incredibly advantageous to children in cognitive, intellectual, and behavioural terms, especially if they begin reading at a young age.?

Researchers found benefits of leisure reading?

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Researchers from the United Kingdom and China examined the several benefits of "leisure" reading by analysing data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development cohort, which was recruited as part of a longitudinal study of over 10,000 early adolescents in North America. The researchers wanted to know if reading for pleasure in early life helps young people's cerebral and cognitive development.

Indeed, doctors and teachers frequently emphasise the importance of immersing children in the joys of reading from an early age. That is why they advise parents to read stories to their children in order to instill a lifelong love of literature in their children.?

However, experts were previously unsure whether this exercise involved cognitive and brain functions that could assist children as they grow older.?

A wide range of data was examined for this idea?

Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Warwick, and Fudan examined a wide range of data, including clinical interviews, cognitive tests, mental and behavioural assessments, and brain scans, to evaluate this idea.?

They included teenagers who began reading for enjoyment at a young age (between 2 and 9), as well as those who began reading later or not at all.

Nearly half of the participants (48%) in this study, published in the journal Psychology Medicine, had never read for pleasure or had only begun to do so later in life. The other half of the sample had read for enjoyment for three to 10 years.?

Surprisingly, youngsters do not need to spend hours a day with their noses in books to reap the benefits stated by the study. It appears that twelve hours each week is ideal.?

Furthermore, the benefits of "pleasure" reading decline in young people, which the researchers attribute to the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle.?

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