Reading Rewires Your Brain: Why Raising A Reader is So Important
Top 3 Takeaways to Raising a Reader:
The benefits of reading go beyond the classroom –as our brains rewire, we become more focused, empathetic, and intelligent individuals.
Meet your child where they’re at. Reluctant readers need to build their confidence, stamina, and interest and a low-pressure environment at home is a key to building your child up.
Make reading fun! The first step in reading for pleasure is making it your own. Allow your kid’s personality to shine through in their book choices, reading space, and routine.
When we were children, I’m sure you’ve heard the tried-and-true advice, “You should read more, it’s good for your brain!” If you are a parent today, the chances are you’re hammering home the same advice to your children. Because it’s true. The habit of reading, especially if started at an early age, helps in brain development and enhances imagination. Building this habit is truly giving your child a gift for their lifetime.
Yet Americans read fewer and fewer books each year, so we’re not actually being good role models. Research also shows that reading among children declines significantly from the age of nine. Learning to read was arduous before the pandemic wreaked havoc on the education system.
“Illiteracy is at epidemic levels in all parts of the U.S”
Matt Cooper Borkenhagen, a language researcher and graduate student in psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
So I did some research on what happens if you give a child a book and the impact it has on brain development. Conversely, what happens to the brain when a child hates reading? Here is what I uncovered.
Does Reading Make Children Smarter?
The answer is a resounding yes! When we look to successful leaders, there all have one thing in common. They are all voracious readers.
Warren Buffet reportedly spends five to six hours a day reading five different newspapers.
Bill Gates reads 50 books a year, or roughly one book a week
Elon Musk as a child was reading sci-fi novels for up to 10 hours a day.
Reading Makes Children More Empathetic
According to neuroscientists, reading exercises your emotional intelligence. From an intellectual standpoint, literature often makes us grapple with some of life’s toughest questions, finds empathy for characters who have different values than our own, and experience perspectives and cultures from a unique point of view.
While you may already know that reading helps you have a larger vocabulary and teaches you about a wider variety of subject matter, that’s not all there is to it.
Our brain responds to the words we read. Brain scans show us that our brain waves actually match the actions and emotions we see on the page, as if they’re actually happening to us!
When looking at brain scans of a literate and illiterate adult, their images are fundamentally different. As you learn to read, even late in life as an adult, your brain actually changes and rewires. Not to mention the longer you read, the better equipped you are to grasp complex ideas, focus, remember details, and quite simply, think better.
I’m starting to see why many of the great minds throughout history were also such avid readers!
Other Scientific Benefits of Reading
What’s happening inside the brain? The changes in the brain occur as soon as a child begins stringing letters into words, and words into sentences. This includes a thickened corpus callosum, increased verbal memory, shifted facial recognition to the right hemisphere, and reduced inclination toward holistic visual processing.
If your high school anatomy class isn’t registering a lot of these changes, that’s okay. The biggest takeaway is that the improvements to your emotional intelligence, focus, and complex thinking are because of these physical changes the brain undergoes when learning to read.
Motivating the Reluctant Reader
If you have a child at home who does everything in his or her willpower to avoid reading, don’t get discouraged or give up. The best tip is to be patient and compassionate with your reluctant reader. It takes time to foster enjoyment and confidence in a reluctant or struggling reader.
They likely already know they are behind their peers and go to great lengths to hide their inability. Imagine how they must feel when called to read in front of the class, or pulled out of class for help, or stick to a few books on the far end of the bookshelf for younger kids.
As your child reaches 10, 11, or 12, it can become increasingly more difficult to find books to suit their needs. Reading for pleasure means your son or daughter should be able to whiz past each page with enough ease that it doesn’t feel like work. This nurtures enjoyment and pleasure surrounding the act of reading.
How to Pick a Just Right Book
So the first step is to find age-appropriate texts that are also at the right reading level. Two ways to determine if the book your child choses is appropriate, is to use a few quick checks.
The first check is called the “five finger rule” for reading. Have your child pick a random page, and read through it. If there are more than five words they need to sound out or can’t understand, look for an easier text that won’t burn them out in five minutes.
The second is a quick comprehension check. What’s challenging in older readers is they can often read through a page and sound fluent, but when you ask them simple “who, what, where, when, or why” questions, you’re met with a blank look. If your child can’t comprehend the text, it’s too hard!
Five Fun Ideas to Kickstart Reading
Make it special:
Designate an area in your home for reading, complete with pillows, blankets, and all things cozy. Take it a step further and make frequent trips to the bookstore or library a fun excursion to look forward to. Make this a weekly fixture in the family calendar!
Explore nontraditional methods such as audiobooks or interactive reading apps:
Download apps like Epic, that are filled with online stories that make reading feel more like play.
Involve their younger siblings (or pet!):
Before bed, allow your younger kids to pick out a book and have their older sibling (the reluctant reader) read it to them. While the content may be too young for them to read independently, the level will likely be accessible, and their confidence will grow reading aloud for you and their siblings. The same principle applies when reading to a pet (of all types!).
Explore new genres:
I truly believe that anyone who doesn’t like reading just hasn’t found the right genre for them. Encourage your child to find their own reading style by experimenting with different kinds of books or magazines that include non-fiction like historical, biographical and more!
Read with them!
If your ten-year-old picks up a chapter book, get one for yourself too! As you make your way through the book, you can have your own mini book club. Not only will you be able to ask some super helpful comprehension questions (one of the biggest struggles of older readers), but they’ll feel special that you took an interest in their choice and they’ll enjoy having some of your undivided attention each day.
