Does reading really help you in the long run? Well, reading can provide you with lifelong skills for improving memory retention, building a better vocabulary, and building a basic foundation of knowledge, as well as helping those who enjoy and comprehend what they read on a different level. Reading can add another dimension to their life.
Reading can give you a basic level of knowledge to build on. Research shows that the more time children spend reading grade-level literature a day, the more likely it is for those kids to learn new words from the text that they are reading. This research follows children who are reading internally or being read aloud to. Contrary to popular belief, reading aloud allows for the exposure of sophisticated language (the use of precise, varying, and elevated vocabulary, complex structures, and unaccustomed expressions to convey ideas with greater clarity, impact, and professionalism) as well as letting them hear stories/literature that are above their reading level, but not above their comprehension levels.
A way to keep their comprehension up is by pausing your reading to have thought-out conversations about what you are reading, letting them engage in a new way. Scurenma’s theory is the idea that “comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader’s background knowledge and the text,” mixing/showing that the more background information you know, the easier it will be to learn new concepts or information. Decades of research have backed this up, showing us that the more background knowledge you have about what you are trying to learn, the easier it will be for you to learn the subject.
Research shows that reading fiction lets the brain develop a whole new set of skills. A big way reading (especially fiction) can affect your brain is by “perspective taking”. As you read a book, you aren’t just reading your thinking of these characters as if their stories are actively happening. Getting to see these stories, perspectives, personalities, etc, that may be different from your own, lets you grow your empathy along with your emotional intelligence.
Maryanne Wolf, a professor of childhood development and a literary scholar, once stated, “At a basic brain level, we really do experience the same things the characters do; we don’t just understand a book on a neurological level, we live it. When we read fiction, the brain actively stimulates the consciousness of another person, including those whom we never otherwise even imagine knowing. It allows us to try on, for a few moments, what it truly means to be another person,” I think Maryanne Wolf summed it up beautifully, how it feels to get caught up reading a book that you are so deeply interested in.
No matter if you agree with their thoughts, feelings, actions, ect, we are still put in the position to think about the situation from their point of view. Making it that much easier to do it in real-life situations. When someone has empathy, that means that they can imagine what it might feel like to be put in their life or situation. letting yourself get lost in a book is another way of letting yourself see the world or event through a different pair of eyes, whether you agree with them or not, you’re still taking the time to understand and see it their way.
Oftentimes, people find that reading about other people’s personal experiences and or triggers changes their own mindset on things. Lots of children start to truly understand empathy through Reading because the more the child reads, the more they strengthen their ability to think about things and problem solve from another perspective, for someone other than themselves. This allows children to think through issues that could be similar to ones they or someone close to them is facing.
As you read, you are being forced to think through characters’ plots and motives, which helps to create those problem-solving skills. Encouraging the readers to put pieces together and draw a conclusion. This can help with memory retention, provide more in-depth reading comprehension, and improve concentration. Research has proven that reading correlates to empathy, by figuring out that when we read characters doing certain activities, our brains light up in the same places as it would as if we were actively experiencing those same activities.
So yes, I do think reading just a couple of minutes a day can benefit you in the long run. Reading can benefit you in so many other ways than the few I wrote about in this article. I just believe that these are some of the best ways reading can improve your life, other than the obvious ones.
