Benefits of leisure reading from young

Research shows that teenagers who had started reading for pleasure in childhood performed better than others not only at school, but also on cognitive tests measuring verbal learning, memory and speech development. Photo: 123rf.com

Fewer and fewer young people read for pleasure. Yet this activity is extremely beneficial to them in cognitive, intellectual and behavioural terms, especially if they get into reading at an early age, a new study reveals.

Researchers in Britain and China have investigated the multiple benefits of “leisure” reading by analysing data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development cohort, recruited as part of a longitudinal study of over 10,000 young adolescents in North America.