5 More Reasons to Encourage Your Child to Read

Happy Young Reader’s Day! Does your child love to escape by reading books? If so, that’s great news! It seems that for most kids nowadays, reading has become a long-gone tradition. Among all the television, Internet, phone apps and social media, books more than often take the backseat. But there are so many benefits of reading, including stronger empathy, higher intelligence, rewiring the brain and more.

You can see the original article here:  http://aplus.com/a/what-reading-does-to-your-brain-is-fascinating

1.      Reading rewires the brain.

At Learn 2 Focus, rewiring the brain is an important part of learning programs like Wilson Reading System and Interactive Metronome. Turns out, reading does the same thing! After 100 hours of intensive reading training, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University discovered that the white matter – which improves brain communication – in the children’s brains increased and they were ultimately able to read better.

2.      Reading in a foreign language can make your brain grow.

If you’re learning a foreign language, try reading in the language that you’re learning. A study by the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy discovered that there was significant size growth in parts of the brain that involved learning new material and spatial navigation. Reading in a foreign language improves vocabulary, gives new words context and reinforces memory.

3.      Reading about an experience is like you’re living it yourself.

Have you ever experienced becoming so immersed in a book that the characters’ lives and troubles became real to you? It turns out that our brain is responsible for that. A study on brain patterns showed that it doesn’t show any huge contrasts between reading about something, and experiencing it in real life. Kids therefore can experience vivid replicas of real life just by reading – thank you, fiction!

4.      Different reading styles create different brain patterns.

Do you skim, or do you closely read? The way you read actually shows different blood flow increase in your brain in different ways. So, next time you’re cramming for a test or skimming for a book report, remember your reading style can determine how you’re retaining information.

5.      Reading makes you more empathetic and smarter.

Folks who read literary fiction can understand other’s thoughts and feelings more than others who read nonfiction or genre fiction. Also, people who read score overall higher on intelligence tests. Reading is for smart people! But we all knew that already, right, bookworms.