(Washington Post Illustration; iStock)
Young children who spend about 12 hours a week reading for pleasure tend to do better on cognitive tests and have better mental health when they are adolescents than those who have not developed this reading habit, according to research published in the journal Psychological Medicine.
The group of participants was split about evenly between those whose reading history spanned 3 to 10 years (considered early readers) and those whose reading habit started later, if at all (spanning zero to 2 years).
The researchers found that cognitive performance was better and mental problems were fewer in adolescents who had started routinely reading for pleasure before age 9. The detected benefits included such things as better memory, speech development and academic achievement, as well as fewer signs of stress or depression and fewer behavioral problems such as breaking rules and acting aggressively or impulsively.
As adolescents, those who had started reading at the earliest age and had read for pleasure for 6 to 10 years also slept longer and spent less time on electronic devices than those who had started pleasure reading later in childhood or not at all.
The researchers wrote that “these findings, for the first time, revealed the important relationships of early [reading for pleasure] with subsequent brain and cognitive development and mental well-being.”
Recommended ways to encourage young children to develop a reading habit often include reading aloud to children, letting a child choose the book you will read together (“even if it means reading the same book over and over,” says the American Academy of Pediatrics), introducing them to your local library and helping them find books about their interests and hobbies.
Ren Ecosystem