We all know that reading is one of the most
important fundamental skills children, or anyone, must master to succeed- in
school or in life. Almost everything we do in our daily lives involves some
form of reading, and without a doubt, it is one of the best practices to
stimulate intellectual development in kids ("Why should children,”).
In the present century, the lifestyle of kids
has changed. I think it won’t be much of a surprise when I say that nowadays
the percentage of children who love to read has decreased. Kids are no longer
interested in books or any other reading materials, because they are too busy
with their laptops, iPads, Play Stations, PSPs, etc… Kids think reading is
boring, hard, not fun, and not important and that they don’t have time to read.
Of course, all these are false accusations.
Reading literary books, news and other
informative books has the power to change a person and the way a person’s brain
functions. According to BBC’s documentary “Why Reading Matters?” reading
changes the brain. A scientist resembled the brain to a Lego set that when you
read changes its formation. Why is reading so important and has so much positive
effect on human beings, especially kids?
Reading expands a person’s vocabulary. It is believed that in 1945 an
average elementary student had a vocabulary of 10,000 words, whereas nowadays
they just know 2,500 words ("Viewpoints: Do children," 2013). A huge difference right? The ultimate reason for this is the
decrease in reading (as I mentioned above).
Another important factor is that reading
helps future academic success. By reading students build independence and self
confidence, they make new comprehensions of the world around them (the world
makes more sense), reading, increases knowledge and imaginations, broadens a
person’s outlook and horizon and helps a person relax. Another major advantage
of reading is that it helps improve writing skills, grammar, sentence structure
and communication skills. When a person reads literary/educational books or
news, he/she automatically, without even realizing, learns how to write, how to
use correct grammar and sentence structure. The passages you read
unintentionally get stuck in your brain, thus storing lots of new sentences,
and words which help that person communicate efficiently when needed. A recent study by researchers Cunningham and
Stannovich titled “What Reading Does for the Mind” in 1988, shows that reading
makes a child smarter. They have followed up 268 college students and realized
that students who read have higher grades, and the grades differed by 37.1%.
They have also realized that people, who read, have more vocabulary “storage”
than those who don’t.
On the other hand, some may argue that kids can learn a lot from
video games and other electronic devices. That’s right! Kids may learn valuable
things from those devices; however, the basics are still in books. How can you
learn something if you don’t know how to read, or you don’t love reading? Kids,
who end up learning important things from electronic devices, are those who
either read books, or their parents read them bed time stories. Kids who have
no contact with literature will never look at electronic devices as means of
education and knowledge. So, they end up learning violence and bad words,
instead of valuable information.
If you want to be, or you want the future
generation to be full of profound people and not delinquent ones, try reading
more. You will be surprised on how much you will learn, without even trying
hard. Books, or any other literarily readings will change the way you think,
and the way you live, in a way you wouldn’t know unless you at least once hold
those hard covered papers, smell the strange smell of the papers and feel the
smoothness. Here’s a quote to re-think about the importance of reading. As
Montagu has once said, “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, or any pleasures
so lasting.” In brief, reading is the
golden key to success!
References
Advantages of reading books.
(n.d.). Retrieved from
Cunningham, A., & Stanovich, K.
(n.d.). What reading does for
the mind. Retrieved from
http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/Academic_Resources/Reading/Useful
Articles/Cunningham-What Reading Does for the Mind.pdf
Viewpoints: Do children need to read
more books?. (2013, october 04). Retrieved from
Why should children read?.
(n.d.). Retrieved from
(2009). In Why Reading Matters. BBC.
Retrieved from
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