Study from the University of Cambridge supports that early engagement in reading for pleasure is linked to improve cognitive performance and better mental well being in the children’s adolescent years.

Researchers analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) project, a study where over ten thousand children (n=10,243) from all parts of the United States were recruited from. Children were between the ages of 9 to 11 at the start and follow up in the ages of 11 to 13 years old. The study was comprehensive where data was collected via clinical interview and reports, surveys, cognitive tests, mental and behavioral assessments, and brain scans. The study compared parental reports of children engagement in reading for pleasure and how many hours per week. This data was compared to cognitive assessment scores, behavioral problem scores, and school academic achievement data.

Sadly, approximately 48% of the participants rarely engaged in reading for pleasure or started later in life.

“My co-authors and I wanted to understand the effects of reading early in childhood on brain structure, cognition, school academic achievement and mental health,” said study author Barbara J. Sahakian.

The investigators found numerous benefits in early reading for pleasure that extended into their adolescent years. They found positive correlation between early reading for pleasure with improved cognitive performance scores including beneficial outcomes in verbal learning, memory and speech development, and academic achievement. In addition, these adolescents also had lower mental health and behavioral problems such as psychopathology, impulsivity, and ADHD. Other positive behavioral outcomes include reduced screen time and less sleep disturbances.

“We studied two groups of adolescents, one group had started reading for pleasure at an early age in childhood and the other group had never read for pleasure as a child or had started reading late in childhood,” explained Sahakian. “We studied the brain scans, cognitive test scores, academic performance and mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression and behaviour, such as aggression and rule-breaking of these two groups of adolescents. The adolescents who had read for pleasure as children at an early age had beneficial effects in all of these measures compared with the adolescents who had never read for pleasure or who had started reading for pleasure late in childhood.”

The clinical findings also was reflected in the structural brain imaging data where reading for pleasure was associated with increased total brain volume, cortical areas, and subcortical regions, with areas responsible for language and visual showing the most benefits.

They also reported the optimal duration for pleasure reading was 12 hours per week.

iPad is not a parent. Netflix is not a parent. And last we checked, Xbox is has no parental abilities as well. You as a parent must hold the responsibility of providing your children the best future possible, and one such way of doing so is by promoting pleasure reading to your children in their early years. The benefits will last time a life time from their achievement in school to their social engagement with peers. While schools are responsible for educating children, no one is responsible for replacing your role as a parent. Read on!

The study was published in Psychological Medicine.

YJ Sun et al. Early-initiated childhood reading for pleasure: associations with better cognitive performance, mental well-being and brain structure in young adolescence. Psychological Medicine. 2023. doi:10.1017/S0033291723001381