READING AS A SOURCE OF MULTIPLE BENEFITS

The human brain is a wonderful working machine; it guides our movements and impulses, it contains all the thoughts and the deepest mysteries are hidden inside it. However, due to many different reasons, it doesn’t always work at its best; sometimes, it needs to be activated a little more, in order to reach its peak and be able to produce impressive ideas and enlighten our life path. We can easily endure it (and facilitate ourselves) by simply taking a book and reading it, that’s how easy it is!

In order to get a more accurate and well-defined outlook on the matter it is crucial to consider all the advantages or, as I prefer to call them, benefits of reading. Moreover, an outstanding fact is that all the benefits are valid for every age category.

An initial focus should be on children. From a very young age, all the educational institutions promote reading campaigns for kids, to lead them towards a first approach to reading. This allows cognitive development to be activated. During this phase, the children’s brain is stimulated through uncomplicated processes of reading to increase their vocabulary by learning new and basic words but also to spark curiosity between them. They’re fundamental to enhance their empathy and to create strong bonds with other children. It is of great relevance to underline how reading improves creativity and imagination, soft skills which are to later become important.

An issue that might occur among youth regards the degree of stress and lack of motivation. According to recent studies, the majority of teenagers feel so stressed by the pressure that they feel unable to cope with everything. Reading would be really helpful, since it has the power to transport the readers to another world, far away from all the problems and monotony of everyday life. This way, it can decrease the level of stress and reduce blood pressure. Often, stress is caused by a lack of sleep. Reading helps one de-stress, so doing it before bed calms one down and improves the quality of sleep.

Moreover, it is commonly known that reading without concentrating is impossible. It doesn't matter what we are reading; to fully understand the story we need to focus on every page, detail and so on. Nowadays, we live in a world that is getting faster and more chaotic, so a little focus is what everyone should work on. Reading is one of the activities that enriches one’s ability to concentrate.

Furthermore, while reading, it often occurs to come across unfamiliar words. Books enrich and upgrade one’s vocabulary by introducing new words daily. Not only are they crucial from that perspective, but they open our minds when it comes to communication as well.

Unfortunately, as to many surveys, kids today read less frequently than any previous generation and enjoy reading less than young people used to do in the past. Given this situation, which leads to serious consequences, “IMPROVE: Preventing low reading interest”, a project funded by the European Union aims to find several innovative methods to expand the degree of interest of young people in reading. It is vital to activate ourselves and do our best to promote the beauty of reading and its benefits, especially among young people, our hope for the future.

For further information on the project read the whole article at https://www.incoweb.org/News/INTRODUCING-IMPROVE-PREVENTING-LOW-READING-INTEREST