Got books? How reading for pleasure nurtures your child’s brain and protects their mental health…

Thursday August 10. 2023.

If you instill the habit of reading for pleasure in your children, you will enhance their IQ and protect their future mental health as an adult, according to breaking research

• Professor Barbara Sahakian, study co-author, said:

“Reading isn’t just a pleasurable experience – it’s widely accepted that it inspires thinking and creativity, increases empathy and reduces stress.

But on top of this, we found significant evidence that it’s linked to important developmental factors in children, improving their cognition, mental health, and brain structure, which are cornerstones for future learning and well-being.”

Another study has found that learning to read at an earlier age is a sign of higher IQ.

There is a sweet spot in reading for pleasure…

• It’s easy for kids, and especially teens, to fair to appreciate the virtue of moderation. When it comes to the sweet spot in reading for pleasure that’s around 12 hours of reading per week in childhood.

The researchers pointed out that exceeding this sweet spot may impair social or physical development. Reading for pleasure isn’t the only activity linked to optimal brain development and mental health.

Other activities can also be cognitively critical, and should not be forsaken for a few extra hours with Harry Potter. Social interactions with peers, and and competitive sports participation should not be marginalized.

• 12 hours weekly of reading for pleasure was also associated with a larger brain and improved structure. 12 hours is the sweet spot!

• It is possible that reading more than a dozen hours a week might indicate a deficit in other activities that are cognitively enriching, such as social and sporting activities.

How the study was conducted

This study was freaking huge. It included over 10,000 American teens. One cohort of the study subjects began reading for pleasure in early childhood, others later in teen years, and some, not at all.

Nearly half of the kids in the study had little or no experience of reading for pleasure, or they did not acquire the habit until later.

• The research indicated a strong correlation between reading for pleasure from in early childhood with abovr average performance on standardized tests of verbal skill, speech development, and memory.

• Kiddos who had the read more for pleasure habit had far fewer signs of depression, stress and fewer behavioral problems, as well as better attention.

• Kids who are readers also used screens less, and had longer, healthier sleep patterns.

• Brain scans revealed that kids who engaged in reading for pleasure readers had larger brains, particularly in areas essential for cognition.

Professor Jianfeng Feng, study co-author, said:

“We encourage parents to do their best to awaken the joy of reading in their children at an early age.

Done right, this will not only give them pleasure and enjoyment, but will also help their development and encourage long-term reading habits, which may also prove beneficial into adult life.”

The essence of soulful parenting…

This amazing research highlights a fundamental aspect of what I call soulful parenting.

Childhood is a critical period for brain development. (Black, Walker, Fernald, Andersen, DiGirolamo, Lu and Series, 2017) and (Klingberg 2014; and (Shonkoff and Garner 2012).

Soulful parenting focused on the “long game” of raising a healthy human.

The benefits of healthy cognition and emotional regulation for your child might be found between the pages of a book.

If you establish the habit of reading for pleasure in their childhood, you’ll be nurturing their optimal mental well-being into adolescence and adulthood, providing resilience in times of stress (Beddington, Cooper, Field, Goswami, Huppert, Jenkins and Thomas 2008).

Their developing brains are at your mercy.

Bookmark this post. Show it to your partner.

Got books?

Be well, and Godspeed.

RESEARCH:

Sun, Y., Sahakian, B., Langley, C., Yang, A., Jiang, Y., Kang, J.,Feng, J. (2023). Early-initiated childhood reading for pleasure: Associations with better cognitive performance, mental well-being and brain structure in young adolescence. Psychological Medicine, 1-15. doi:10.1017/S0033291723001381

Supporting Earlier Research:

Beddington, J., Cooper, C. L., Field, J., Goswami, U., Huppert, F. A., Jenkins, R., … Thomas, S. M. (2008). The mental wealth of nations. Nature, 455(7216), 1057–1060. doi: 10.1038/4551057a CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C. H., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu, C. L., … Series, L. E. C. D. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age: Science through the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), 77–90. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31389-7 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Klingberg, T. (2014). Childhood cognitive development as a skill. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(11), 573–579. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.06.007 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of, C., Family, H., Committee on Early Childhood, A., Dependent, C., … Behavioral, P. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), e232–e246. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2663 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed