Reading For Pleasure - Parents Page
Top 10 Reasons Why Your Child Should Read For Pleasure
1.
It Entertains you
All the benefits of reading are a bonus, but the most important reason to read is because it is fun. Reading for enjoyment should always come first.
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A good book can be even more exciting than a film or TV show, even though those are great too. When you read, you use your own imagination to create the world, the characters, and the action in your head.
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Once you’ve imagined that world, you can visit it again whenever you like. You can take your time, enjoy it in your own way, and come back to it again and again — and it doesn’t cost you anything at all.
2.
It develops your verbal abilities
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Reading doesn’t always make you a better speaker, but people who read often usually know more words to help them explain how they feel and what they think. The more books and stories you read, the more words you learn. This gives you a wider vocabulary that you can use in everyday life.
3.
It Improves Your Memory
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When you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a kind of pause button that helps you understand the story and think more deeply about it.
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When you watch a film or listen to an audiobook, your mind might wander. You might get up to get a drink and then come back without stopping it, and the story just carries on. You can rejoin the story without really thinking about what you missed.
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When you read, you have to remember where you stopped so the story still makes sense when you start again. Doing this helps keep your memory strong and your learning skills active.
4.
It Improves Your Focus and Concentration
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Blog posts and news articles are usually short and quick to read, and they are often just about what is happening right now. Reading a book is different. It takes a longer time and needs more focus and concentration.
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At first, this can feel quite hard. When you read a book, you need to block out distractions and really get into the story. You use your time and imagination to build the world of the book in your mind.
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The more you do this, the better you get at concentrating, and over time it helps to strengthen your attention span.
5.
It Reduces Stress
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A recent study by the University of Sussex found that reading can help reduce stress.
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One interesting fact from the study showed that learners only needed to read silently for six minutes to slow down their heart rate and relax their muscles. If you suffer from anxiety, reading can be a simple way to help you feel calmer in your day-to-day life.
6.
It Helps You to Discover Yourself
Books give us the chance to have experiences we might not be able to have in real life. Through reading, we can visit different times and places, explore new worlds, and take part in events we may never experience ourselves.
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Books also let us understand the thoughts and feelings of other people. We can learn what it’s like to be someone else and see the world from their point of view.
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Sometimes, books take us into situations that could be dangerous or impossible in real life, but are safe to explore through reading. We can follow characters we like, and even ones we don’t, and learn important life lessons from their journeys.
7.
It Encourages Us to Act for the Greater Good
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Studies in the UK show similar results about the benefits of reading for pleasure. Research from the National Literacy Trust found that people who enjoy reading are more likely to be kind, involved in their communities, and interested in the world around them.
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The research shows that readers are more likely to volunteer and take part in charity work. They also tend to feel more confident and connected to other people.
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Most importantly, helping others by giving time and effort can improve a person’s own wellbeing. Reading for pleasure doesn’t just help with learning — it can also help people feel happier and more positive in everyday life.
8.
It Improves Our Imagination
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People often say that we are only limited by what we can imagine. Books help grow your imagination by showing you new worlds, ideas, and different ways of thinking.
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When you read about a place or an event, your brain has to create the picture in your head. You do the imagining yourself. When you watch a film or a TV programme, the pictures are already shown to you, so you don’t have to imagine them.
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Watching a screen can be passive, but reading makes your mind work. By using your imagination when you read, you help it grow stronger and more creative, which helps you understand what might be possible in the world.
9.
It Makes You Smarter
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People often say that we are only limited by what we can imagine. Reading books helps your imagination grow by showing you new worlds, ideas, and different ways of thinking.
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When you read about a place or an event, your brain creates the pictures for you. You are doing the imagining yourself. When you watch a film or a TV programme, the pictures are already there, so you don’t need to imagine them.
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Watching a screen can be quite passive, but reading makes your brain work harder. Using your imagination when you read helps it become stronger and more creative, and helps you see what might be possible in the world.
10.
It Makes You Interesting and Attractive
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We often talk about “being in the conversation”. One great thing about reading lots of stories is that you start to notice where other people get their ideas from. You can see links between books, films, history, and real life.
When you can spot connections between two or more ideas and talk about them, it’s easier to join in conversations and feel confident about what you’re saying. This works for both fiction and non-fiction.
The less other people need to explain things to help you catch up, the more enjoyable and interesting the conversation becomes. The more people you can talk to and understand, the more interesting the world feels.
Why Read For Pleasure
Here at Orchard Training, we are very aware that many learners have become disengaged from reading during their time in school. This is often because reading is taught through heavy over-analysis of small sections of text, rather than allowing learners to enjoy the story as a whole. When reading begins to feel like an assessment instead of a pleasure, motivation and confidence can quickly be lost. Our approach is to reintroduce reading as something enjoyable, focusing on the characters, themes, and overall experience of the book.
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We strongly encourage learners to choose books that genuinely interest them. Reading is far more successful when a child feels connected to what they are reading, rather than being directed towards texts that do not suit their interests or abilities.
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It is also important for learners to understand that it is perfectly acceptable to stop reading a book if it does not engage them. Not every book is right for every reader, and moving on to find a more suitable text is a positive and healthy reading choice.
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Reading for pleasure is essential because reading is very much a “use it or lose it” skill. Without regular practice, reading can become more difficult over time. Reading for pleasure means reading by choice and for enjoyment, not simply to meet an academic requirement.
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This kind of reading can take many forms and does not have to be limited to novels. Cookery books and gardening books, for example, may be read for instructions, but they can also be enjoyed purely out of interest. Reading for pleasure can include library books, online articles, websites, magazines, or e-readers such as a Kindle. For those of us who are dyslexic audio books are just as valid as the printed form.
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Examples of fiction include novels, short stories, comics, poetry, song lyrics, plays, and scripts. Non-fiction can include reference books, newsletters, letters, emails, biographies, memoirs, newspapers, magazines, and websites.
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Ultimately, the most important aim is for learners to read material they enjoy, so that reading becomes a positive habit they are motivated to continue. It is just as valid for a learner to read several books by the same author and enjoy their work over time as it is to move between different authors, explore a range of books within one genre, or switch between fiction and non-fiction. There is no single “right” way to be a reader — what matters most is building confidence, enjoyment, and a lasting love of reading.
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