Read A Story and Change Your Brain

Bed time stories are good for you! Of course you knew that, but maybe you didn't know why. Reading aloud to young children is a favorite activity in many families.  The nightly ritual forms a parental bond.  Sharing experiences through books helps to shape family values, create common language, and develop the family sense of humor.  Sharing stories is fun.

Reading aloud also helps children develop and maintain creativity.  Most young children say they are creative, and they are right.  Most high school graduates say they are not creative.  That means somewhere in those developing years their creativity was not praised and given a chance to grow. Parents hope their children will be creative.  Creative people are successful.  They become leaders, solve scientific problems, develop new businesses, and write books.  One simple habit can help kids become creative and successful.

Reading aloud to a child for 30 minutes a day improves creativity.  Brain mapping shows where the centers of creativity and imagination are in the brain.  Activating these centers of the brain build synapses, which are the connections between brain cells. Children form synapses as they experience the world around them.  Repeated use of the synapses strengthens them.  So this simple 30 minute activity changes the brain for the better.

Who should do the reading?  Both parent and child should read. Listening to someone reading aloud improves verbal skills.  It sharpens focus and power of concentration. Children benefit from reading aloud.  Hearing their own voice reading aloud improves fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and control of the voice. So read aloud often. Read aloud to little brother, the cat, the teddy bear.  It's all good.