On our journey of researching and preparing for the science behind reading presentation for the Academic Scholars programme, we learnt about a lot of things to do with the science, and specifically the neuroscience of reading. Emily and I were really interested in this topic, mainly because of the fact that throughout our whole lives, Emily and I have both loved reading. Whether it was ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ or Enid Blyton’s famous ‘The famous five’ series, books and being transported into another world is something that we wanted to find out more about and something that we felt really close to. For this, we focused on three main things: reading from a young age, reading fiction vs non-fiction and the science behind reading in general.
Our first point was reading from a young age. It is scientifically proven that reading form a young age helps you in school and also improves brain structure1 It is proven that for children who read from a youngage for 12 hours a week are more empathetic, have a better understanding of the world and are overall more successful in later life.
The second section we looked at was reading fiction vs non-fiction and what we surprisingly found was that reading fiction is actually a lot better for the developmental side of the brain. In our research we discovered that reading helps the emotional side of your brain to develop, reduces stress and helps in social situations for you to understand them better1 It helps for other people to put themselves in other’s shoes because they are able to experience things outside of their brain and literally step into somebody else’s mind. Whereas, reading non-fiction helps with critical thinking and problem solving skills. It also improves: self-awareness, rational thinking, self-discipline, flexibility and theory of mind.2
The science or, specifically the neuroscience behind reading in general, regardless of age and of what genre, was our third and final main point. We found out that because reading takes so many parts of the brain and the brain is a muscle, it means that many parts of the brain are being strengthened and used. For example, the temporal lobe, which is the part of your brain that is responsible for the phonological awareness and discriminating sounds; the bronco area in the temporal lobe, which is for speech production and language comprehension.1
In conclusion, there is a lot more to reading than meets the eye. And your brain is actually improving and working really hard every time you read. It not only helps with an understanding of the world and the people around but also helps you to grow and develop as a person.
Citations
1 University of Cambridge
2 Grattan Street Press
3 Harvard Business Review
4 Harvard Medical School
- Emily & Victoria