While some of us enjoy curling up with a good book, others prefer watching a series or playing videogames. But from the perspective of neuroscience, reading is much more than just entertainment.
This is especially true for children and teenagers. In the young brain, reading stimulates specific cognitive processes that can make a major difference in adult life.
Reading is important during adolescence because it is a stage where the brain is still developing. Throughout this stage, there is an intense reorganisation of the neural networks that strengthen reasoning, planning and behavioural control.
One of the key brain structures in this process is the prefrontal cortex, a region associated with what are known as executive functions, which are responsible for sustaining attention, inhibiting distractions and controlling information processing. Certain experiences during this stage can catalyse cognitive development, and help to consolidate these abilities.
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Understanding a long text activates many of the mental processes that the adolescent brain is still constructing: sustaining attention over a prolonged period, recalling prior information, making connections between ideas, forming predictions, spotting inconsistencies and actively constructing the meaning of the story. Far from being a passive activity, reading involves considerable cognitive effort.
Precisely because of this cognitive demand, reading does not always generate the same immediate engagement as other, more passive activities. While many digital leisure activities offer instant gratification and a constant stream of new stimuli, reading requires an initial period of concentration and engagement before the narrative reward becomes apparent.
Reading and flow states
As reading skills become more established, something interesting happens: reading begins to flow. As the processes of decoding words, accessing their meaning and integrating the information needed to understand the text become automatic, cognitive effort diminishes and readers are able to become immersed in the story.
Attention then shifts away from deciphering sentences and towards understanding the narrative world and the characters. This is the point where reading becomes, for many people, a pleasurable activity.
And regular reading doesn’t just bring enjoyment: it also boosts cognitive development. In fact, its link to progress during adolescence is particularly significant, and even outweighs other factors like parents’ educational attainment.
It also helps us to interpret other people’s thoughts and emotional states and to understand and analyse our own mental processes, evaluate information, and distinguish between strong and weak arguments. By strengthening our critical thinking skills, it protects against fake news and misinformation.
Not all leisure activities activate these processes as deeply.
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Does it matter what you read?
Literary fiction, such as novels or other stories featuring unpredictable characters and ambiguous situations, is particularly effective in fostering an understanding of the mental and emotional states of others, as it immerses the reader in complex social worlds. Informative or educational books, on the other hand, contribute more to the development of reasoning.
The ideal thing is to read what you most enjoy. Nevertheless, reading more varied and high quality texts will develop a wider range of different skills.
And what if you don’t like reading?
Not everyone finds reading inherently appealing. Psychological research suggests that, when it comes to demanding activities, starting early and practising frequently can be key to making them ultimately rewarding. Reading is no exception.
If you are exposed to reading at an early age, you are likely to develop positive feelings towards books. And if your early experiences were negative – you were forced to read things that did not interest you, or struggled and found reading boring – motivation will be much lower.
That is why it is so important that in classrooms and homes we have access to all kinds of books, and that we can choose what to read, read together, and find stories that resonate with our interests and concerns.
For those who feel that “reading isn’t their thing”, it is important to remember that initial difficulty does not indicate a lack of ability – indeed, it is actually part of the learning process. With experience, reading comprehension becomes easier and less demanding, so it is best not to give up before it starts to become enjoyable. Even those who struggle most with reading can benefit from it.
Ultimately, reading journeys, like life journeys themselves, are diverse, and skills can develop in many different ways over time. But it is especially important for children and teenagers. In adolescence, reading is more than a cultural practice – it trains attention, imagination, reasoning and complex thought at a time when the brain’s development is in full swing.
Choosing not to read doesn’t just mean missing out on a pastime. It also means renouncing a powerful tool for cognitive development, and for a well-rounded cultural, critical and civic education.
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