There may be a reason some adolescents perform well at cognitive tests and have better mental health. It could be because they did plenty of reading for pleasure early in life.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England recently found an association between mental resiliency in adolescence and reading that began years earlier. Until now, some future benefits of early reading have been largely unclear.
The researchers looked at data from more than 10,000 adolescents in the U.S. They analyzed a range of data, including clinical interviews, brain scans, cognitive tests and mental assessments. Kids who began reading for pleasure between the ages of 2 and 9 were compared with those who started pleasure-reading later or not at all.
The team found a strong link between reading for pleasure at an early age and positive performance on tests that measured verbal learning, academic achievement and development of memory and speech. Those children also had fewer signs of depression and stress, as well as fewer behavioral problems and improved attention.
The early readers also were found to spend less time watching television and using smartphones.
And the effects went beyond cognition and mental well-being. Children who hit the books for fun at a young age also had moderately larger brain volume, especially in those areas that drive cognitive functions.
So just how much early reading might be considered optimal? The researchers concluded it was about 12 hours a week. Anything more than that does not appear to produce additional benefits.
For parents, that’s one more reason to encourage children to trade their tablet for a tome.