Why Is Reading So Important?

What do Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama have in common? While they belong to different fields, they all share the same love for reading. In fact, Gates reads at least 50 titles a year! In the United States, the average number of books a person can complete annually is only 12.

These people immerse themselves in the pages of a hardcover or spend hours on their Kindle not to impress anyone. Instead, they know that this activity provides a wide range of benefits that can impact not only their career, in particular, but also their life, in general.

Fortunately, children can enjoy the same benefits once they begin to turn the pages. Here are the many advantages of reading:

1. Reading Exercises the Brain

At first glance, reading seems to be an easygoing activity, probably similar to watching a movie on Netflix. In reality, it’s extremely demanding for the brain—and that’s good, according to a study by Haskins Laboratories.

When a person reads, it engages many areas of the brain even those that are involved in language, vision, and associative learning. According to the researchers, the activity forces the individual to imagine and become creative to fully understand the narrative.

However, unlike other learning activities like listening to the audiobook version or seeing a movie adaptation, reading allows a person to pause, think, and process the information they glean.

In turn, all these kinds of brain engagement cause the body’s command center to remain sharp and nimble. In other words, they are keener to accept and learn new or updated information later.

As expected too, reading, especially beginning at a young age, can help children build a massive vocabulary. And it turns out those who have this skill may perform better academically as they grow older. They may even land jobs more quickly since extensive familiarity with words can make them effective communicators.

2. This Activity Helps Build the Child’s Social Skills

Although children may read together in schools, reading is often a solitary activity. So how can it promote their social skills?

Many experts believe that reading helps kids develop empathy. For a person to relate to the story told by a book, they may need to be the character. In the process, they learn to be in someone else’s shoes.

They may also begin to recognize the emotions of not only the character they associate themselves with but also those of others. The gradual acceptance and understanding of people’s emotions may allow them to build or nurture better friendships. Young ones may easily lose their self-entitlement and learn the virtues of patience, generosity, and care early.

3. Reading May Help Children Cope with Daily Stress

Stress doesn’t discriminate against anyone, but it can be more problematic with kids:

Toddlers and young children may not understand the concept of stress completely. They may not be aware that what they’re experiencing is already it.

Children may not have the right words or enough experiences to describe what they’re going through more accurately to adults.

Children may also not know stress if the adults who surround them can handle it excellently.

Fortunately, today, parents and teachers can already apply many strategies to help kids cope with stress and burnout even at a young age. Reading is one of them.

In a 2009 study in the Journal of College Teaching and Learning, reading even for half an hour could already reduce common stress markers that include faster heart rate, high blood pressure, and feelings of distress. It makes the activity just as effective as yoga and humor in calming or relaxing a person.

The question is how. It seems reading non-fiction can provide a temporary escape or enhance a child’s creativity, which lets them express their discomfort in other ways. In the meantime, if they read non-fiction, the books may offer them strategies to help them deal with the symptoms.

Supporting and Encouraging Kids to Read

Reading indeed helps raise well-rounded, intellectual, socially equipped children. But our school is also aware that this activity finds itself competing against social media, YouTube, Netflix, and other apps. How do we motivate them to grab a book and explore the inner worlds of the pages?

Each year, MIS motivates our kids of various ages to participate in the Kidpublish Storytelling and Story Writing Contest, where they can let their imagination run wild and creativity doesn’t know limits. These activities also nurture their public speaking skills.

Along with this, we highlight books the students themselves have written and drum up support. This way, they will be more empowered to create and tell more stories.

The famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said that of a person learns to read, then they will be free forever. That can never be truer. The worlds the students can travel, the characters they meet, and the lessons they learn can be endless.