What does read do
Over 1, years later, people the world over are still engrossed by novels — even in an era where stories appear on handheld screens and disappear 24 hours later. What exactly do human beings get from reading books? Is it just a matter of pleasure, or are there benefits beyond enjoyment? Chat 123 books benefits both your physical and mental healthand those benefits can last a lifetime. They begin in early childhood and continue through the senior years. Using MRI scansresearchers have confirmed that reading involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain. As your reading ability matures, those networks also get stronger and more sophisticated.
Reading is a complex, multipart process. Spoken words are made up of smaller pieces of sound—called phonemes. The English erad has about 40 phonemes. When someone says a word, the https://solargemeinschaft-biohof-deiters-gbr.de/communication/personality-type-dating-website.php comes out as one continuous stream Figure 1. The brain must be able to separate the sound into pieces.
Benefits of Reading Books: For Your Physical and Mental Health
Since you were a child, you've probably been told to read because "it's good reae you. You might be surprised to find out exactly what happens in your head when you crack open contact apple support subscription book. Reading is perhaps one of the best hobbies in the https://solargemeinschaft-biohof-deiters-gbr.de/sites/best-dating-sites-to-meet-wealthy-men.phpand one of the healthiest. Whether you're reading fiction or nonfiction, a https://solargemeinschaft-biohof-deiters-gbr.de/communication/find-women-to-chat-with.php or a poem, reading is not only educational and informative, it's entertaining and relaxing, too. And, although it is still a widely unexplored area, research on reading has shown its many benefits. Over the years, doctors, scientists, and researchers have confirmed that reading is a stress-reducing activity doed can lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
The brain must be able to separate the sound into pieces. Understanding that words are made up of individual sounds is a key part of learning to read. An important skill that helps readers is called phonemic awareness, which refers to the ability to identify and manipulate or work with the individual sounds that make up a spoken word. Phonemes make up spoken words, and words only make sense when these phonemes are combined in a particular order. Phonemic awareness can be taught and learned using activities such as rhyming games.
Part of this learning is also realizing that a change to a single sound or phoneme can change the meaning of the word. In alphabetic languages such as English, another part of learning to read is understanding that letters of the alphabet stand for sounds or phonemes. A phoneme can correspond to one letter or a group of letters. This knowledge is called the alphabetic principle Figure 2.
When students use the letter-sound pairings to sound out printed words, it is called phonics. This requires learning to pair their knowledge of the sounds in words phonemic awareness with their skill at recognizing letters. Then you can sound it out and pronounce it. Knowing that a word has meaning is an important part of learning to read.
The words we know are called our vocabulary. Learning vocabulary starts very early in life. Infants and toddlers look at what you are talking about and say their first words to get what they need or want. As toddlers grow, they learn more and more words. By the time they start to sound out words to read, most children can recognize many of the words they are sounding out.
They know they have heard those words before, and they know what the words mean. This is why having a good vocabulary is so important to reading. As a reader continues to develop phonics skills, a specific reading skill called fluency also improves. Fluency goes beyond just pronouncing or knowing words. It includes many parts:. Understanding the information that words and sentences communicate is another important part of reading.
This is called comprehension. Comprehension is the main goal of learning to read. There are many ways to improve comprehension:. Such strategies teach students to ask and answer questions about what they are reading, summarize paragraphs and stories, and draw conclusions from the information. These skills are the foundation for understanding science, history, social studies, math, and the many other subjects students will study throughout their education.
Toggle navigation Toggle Search. Search Search. Researchers have found that students who read books regularly, beginning at a young age, gradually develop large vocabularies. And vocabulary size can influence many areas of your life, from scores on standardized tests to college admissions and job opportunities.
Reading books is the best way to increase your exposure to new words, learned in context. You can look for it at your local bookstore or find it online. The National Institute on Aging recommends reading books and magazines as a way of keeping your mind engaged as you grow older. And the earlier you start, the better. In , a group of researchers measured the effects of yoga , humor, and reading on the stress levels of students in demanding health science programs in the United States. The study found that 30 minutes of reading lowered blood pressure , heart rate , and feelings of psychological distress just as effectively as yoga and humor did.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic suggest reading as part of a regular sleep routine. For best results, you may want to choose a print book rather than reading on a screen, since the light emitted by your device could keep you awake and lead to other unwanted health outcomes. Doctors also recommend that you read somewhere other than your bedroom if you have trouble falling asleep.
Reading fiction can allow you to temporarily escape your own world and become swept up in the imagined experiences of the characters. And nonfiction self-help books can teach you strategies that may help you manage symptoms. There was a time when remote regions had to rely on librarians traversing the mountains with books stuffed in saddlebags. Just about everyone can access vast libraries contained in cellphones and tablets. Consider it a mentorship you can pick up and put down when it suits your schedule.
Studies have shown repeatedly that people who read print books score higher on comprehension tests and remember more of what they read than people who read the same material in a digital form. That may be, in part, because people tend to read print more slowly than they read digital content. But binge-watching TV probably needs to be an occasional treat rather than your main source of intellectual stimulation.
Research shows that prolonged TV viewing, especially for children, may change the brain in unhealthy ways. Mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness. Learn more about how to exercise your mind and keep your brain in shape. If you're looking for ways to improve your memory, focus, concentration, or other cognitive skills, there are many brain exercises to try. Learn which…. Having poor memory can be frustrating. You can use these 14 lifestyle and dietary tips to help improve your memory naturally.
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