The Benefits from Reading for Pleasure for Children

     Children do not learn and sharpen their skill just from academic reading. Reading for pleasure can be a great experience and opens up new worlds for children and their future. Children will open their eyes and learn a lot of things as well as benefited from this activity. There is so many benefits for children from reading for pleasure. And this benefit does not just visible in their childhood, it also follow them through their adulthood.

    The benefit for children in reading is they get the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas. Their imagination might get wild such as building new characters, unique places, or even weird shapes. However it is a good sign for children because with their imagination, nothing can stop them. The ability to form new ideas, images or concepts without needing to see or sense something build up children’s ability for creativity and resourcefulness. In fact, even Einstein (1931) understood the importance of imagination for children, as I quote “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution”. Imagination is an important skill to develop in early childhood, as it can be good marker for understanding a child’s overall development.

    Another benefit for children whom reading for pleasure is it also helps children to improve their empathy as children get engage toward what they are reading. Children get so engrossed toward what they are reading that their brains would react as if the events were happening in the real world. For example, from reading for pleasure they can imagine what would the characters in the book’s reaction toward certain event and understand the reason behind those character’s action. The circumstances they find in books give them social clue to how individuals respond to different encounters (Lurie, 2018). Children could act the same as those people in books because children tend to do what they see. Moreover, Children learn how to share opinions at a younger age as well as building their understanding of other cultures and perspectives. Having empathy allows children to build stronger social connections with other individuals. When they understand what people are feeling and thinking, they can have an appropriate response to social situations.

    The biggest benefit from reading for pleasure is children tend to be more success in life. As children read for pleasure, it does not make children better at reading however it makes them better at learning. 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70, 2014) found that children that read for fun are not just better at reading and English, they are better at all subjects. Research from BCS70 has also shown that reading for pleasure during childhood has a significant impact on their vocabulary 30 years later. Those who had regularly read for pleasure at the age 10 scored, on average, 67 per cent in the age 42 vocabulary test, whereas infrequent childhood readers scored only 51 per cent. It is proven that reading for pleasure is directly related to children's success at school, during their youths, and even into their adulthood.

    Improving imagination, empathy and success in life are the benefits for children from reading for pleasure. Not only it open up new world for children, it also impact their success in life. When children start reading for pleasure at young age the benefit continue to grow as they grow into adulthood. This piece of information is supported by research. All explanation above should be enough reasons why we must encourage children to read for pleasure more often. For it can make their future brighter.

References

BCS70. (2014, November 6). Long-term vocabulary benefits from ‘reading for pleasure’ in childhood. Retrieved from BCS70: https://bcs70.info/long-term-vocabulary-benefits-from-reading-for-pleasure-in-childhood/

Einstein, A. (1931). Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms. New York: ProQuest.

Lurie, L. (2018, March 30). The Benefits of Reading for Pleasure. Retrieved from Kids Read Now: https://kidsreadnow.org/the-benefits-of-reading-for-pleasure/