Children Who Read for Pleasure

Two of our staff members attended a presentation at the National Library on Reading.
Here are some interesting messages from this:

Reading for pleasure

• increases empathy
  
• increase knowledge of other cultures
  
• reduces symptoms of depression and dementia
  
• improves parent-child communication
  
• increases social capital for children, young people
  and adults.
• more important for children’s cognitive development between 10 and 16 than parents' level of education.
• children who read for pleasure made more progress in maths, vocab and spelling, between ages 10 & 16 than those who rarely read.
• improved empathy, imagination, relationships, reduced stress, insight into world-view of others... 

Reading for pleasure- NZ research
Students who enjoy reading had consistently higher scores in:
• reading
• maths
• logical problem solving, and attitude. 

www.natlib.govt.nz/schools