Reading and the Brain: A Powerful Connection and How to Nurture It in Children
Reading and the Brain: A Powerful Connection
Reading is one of the most effective ways to develop the brain. This statement is widely accepted today. However, reading is also one of the most complex intellectual processes. It takes years to learn how to read, and decades to find pleasure in it. But why is this the case? Let’s explore this from the perspective of modern neuroscience.
What to Read to Children?
To learn how to read, we first need to form what is known as the “system of ideal objects”—ideal images that exist in our minds. For example, to understand the meaning of the word “table,” our brain must comprehend what this term signifies. You understand that the table in your room and the word “table” written on paper are entirely different things. A word is merely a set of letters until you grasp the concept behind it.
The realization of how real objects and words are connected begins in the first year of life. Infants quickly start to understand what their mother means when she says, “Let’s sit at the table and have lunch.” At this stage, when the brain is learning to understand the meaning of various words, you can introduce books to your little one.
The First Year of Life
During the first year of life, I recommend two types of books for infants and their parents:
- Books for the baby: These should be picture books with either no storylines or very simple ones. Preference should be given to books with light pages depicting individual objects from the baby’s surroundings. By studying such books, the baby will compare what they see around them, what their parents tell them, and what is drawn, thereby complicating the structure of the ideal objects that their brain will need later in the reading process.
- Books for parents to read aloud: During the first months of life, these books can be absolutely any kind. At this stage, I recommend parents read aloud what they themselves enjoy! Even if it’s quantum mechanics!
In the first six months, a baby’s understanding of what words mean is still poorly formed. For them, “bunny” and “electron” are objects of equal complexity. The process of reading aloud is important for the baby primarily as an emotional connection with the adult. If the adult reads what they enjoy, the baby receives a signal that everything is fine, they are safe, and the object called “book” is useful and necessary as it is a source of this comfortable state.
Once the brain has formed a certain number of ideal objects necessary for communication with the surrounding world, the baby learns to connect them, conveying meanings. The brain actively starts practicing this skill at the age of 3. During this period, it also learns to identify inconsistencies in expressions like “this is a chair—you eat on it.”
To learn to think and speak in sentences, it is very important for the baby to receive as much textual information as possible from the surroundings: stories from adults about what they see around them, comments on each action performed, verbalization of emotions, and, of course, joint reading.
Fortunately, the modern literary world offers a huge number of books for readers of this age. Primarily, these are picture books where the story is told through the illustrations themselves. The illustrations in such books are detailed and suitable both for discussing plots and for examining details.
Ages 2-4
From the age of two, children enjoy listening to story-based picture books with a small amount of text, which can be written in verse or in the form of a regular story.
By the way, these stories can be not only about the world around the child. While forming the world of ideal objects, children readily engage in fantastic plots, so fairy tales about dragons, princesses, and fairies are perfect for them.
Ages 4-7
After the age of 4, our brain gradually prepares to work with a new type of ideal objects—letters and words. Recognizing individual symbols, combining them into words, understanding the meanings behind them, and combining them into coherent sentences is a complex process. Normally, a child masters it between the ages of 5 and 7. Undoubtedly, there are exceptions—children who read easily at 3-4 years old. But exceptions in this case only emphasize the rule. This means that accelerating the processes of independent reading is more likely to cause harm than benefit. It is already very difficult for a child to learn to read. Any coercion to read will only cause rejection and hatred.
Teach a child to read independently gradually: first by answering their questions about what this or that letter means, then showing how letters combine into words, how they form sentences, and how to better understand these words and sentences.
All books for beginner readers aged 5-7 can be divided into two groups. First, these are books that children read themselves: small books with a lot of pictures, a small amount of text (1-2 sentences per page), printed in large font on thick paper.
There should also be books in the child’s space that adults will read aloud to them. At the stage when a child is mastering a complex skill, adult support is very important. Parents who read bright, interesting books with wonderful illustrations and plots every day, showing how great it is to be able to read, will undoubtedly provide such support.
When choosing what to read at this age, it is important to focus on the child’s taste, the themes that are their priority, and the style that captivates them.
Ages 8-10
Starting from the age of 8, a period begins that I call “adaptation to reading.” The child already knows how to read, although not always with pleasure and of their own accord (which is not surprising, as the reading skill is not yet honed and requires effort).
However, starting from the age of 8, children read every day. Yes, children who go to school read every day! They read the conditions of tasks, exercises, and short texts from textbooks. If they conscientiously complete all the tasks assigned at school and read all the extracurricular texts, the child will receive the necessary minimum for brain development. But, in my opinion, considering the variety of existing literature, it would be good to go beyond the school curriculum. This is primarily important for the development of our brain.
Ages 10-12
We enter the phase of adolescent development. Serious changes begin in the body. During adolescence, it is important for us to learn as many different models of social structure and types of interactions between people as possible. We can learn about them from practical experience or from books. The book option seems optimal to me, as it allows us to obtain a sufficiently detailed scheme of how everything is arranged in the world of people in the least costly way. Moreover, in the space of modern literature, there are practically no unexplored topics. There are books here about how important it is to be yourself, about how you can find a common language with others, what death is, how to behave, and much more.
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