A girl reading a book, sitting on a fluffy pink pouff, under a white tulle canopy
Summertime is a wonderful opportunity to help your kids develop reading habits.
Reading is an educational tool and plays a fundamental role in their overall development.


Here are five research-based ways in which reading emPOWERS kids
with life skills (Superpowers!) to help them grow and thrive. 

  1. Reading enhances cognitive development.

Reading stimulates brain development, especially in young children. When kids engage with books, they practice critical thinking and comprehension skills. According to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, children who are read to at home show significantly higher activation in brain areas supporting mental imagery and narrative comprehension (Hutton et al., 2015).

Superpower skill: Getting “brainier”.

2. Reading improves language skills

Regular reading expands a child’s vocabulary, improves their grammar, and enhances their understanding of language structures. This linguistic foundation is crucial for effective communication (Mol & Bus, 2011).

Superpower skills: Using words to express feelings, understand the world, and connect with others.

3. Reading fosters emotional intelligence and empathy

Through stories, children experience different emotions and learn to empathize with characters, which enhances their emotional intelligence and empathy in real life. Research published in the journal Science suggests that reading literary fiction improves our Theory of Mind ability (Kidd & Castano, 2013).

That sounds like an impressive skill for your kid to grow, but you might wonder:

What is “Theory of Mind” and why is it important for my child to grow this skill?

“Theory of Mind” or ToM, also called “mentalizing”, is a person’s ability to explain, predict, and interpret behaviour by understanding that we have mental states, such as desires, beliefs, intentions, and emotions, and that these are different for oneself and others. Understanding others makes children act in more prosocial ways. (Imuta et al., 2016).

Superpower skills: Understanding and relating to others’ feelings.

4. Reading reduces stress and provides relaxation.

Reading can be a relaxing activity that helps children manage stress and unwind. It provides a healthy escape from everyday pressures and fosters a sense of calm. A study by the University of Sussex found that reading for just six minutes can reduce stress levels by up to 68%, more than listening to music or taking a walk (Chiles, 2009).

Superpower skills: Knowing how to destress and relax.

✨ Bonus: While your child reads, you can take a well-deserved break too!

✨ Bonus: While your child reads, you can take a well-deserved break too!

5. Reading expands your child’s ability to have fun.

Reading for pure enjoyment—reading just for fun—has tremendous value.

As award-winning children‘s book author Katherine Marsh shares in a recent article for The Atlantic (Marsh, 2023) children can be discouraged from reading if, through their experience at school or at home, they associate reading with being assessed on their reading comprehension or their ability to analyze and pick apart everything they read.

Remember that there is intrinsic value in pure enjoyment— so please do encourage your child to read at their level about things that they enjoy. Besides, having fun is a wonderfully natural way to spark spontaneous learning, and to retain what we learn.

Superpower skill: Having fun!

References

Meet the friendly authors

Natalie Bergman, MA, RPsych, CPT
Natalie Bergman, MA, RPsych, CPTChild Psychologist at Kids Reconnect
Natalie is a Director and co-founder at Kids Reconnect. She is an experienced child psychologist and Certified Play Therapist who uses her professional expertise and caring heart Superpowers to emotionally connect with children, helping them heal using play therapy and heart-to-heart conversations. Natalie also uses her profound insights into the world of children to help parents understand and connect with their child. She loves reading and reads extensively, both for scholarly reasons and just for fun, whenever she gets a chance.
Ana Hoepfner, BEc
Ana Hoepfner, BEcCommunications at Kids Reconnect
Ana is a writer and designer who delivers business results through creative, joyful communications that surprise and delight audiences. Leveraging her 15+ year track record of successfully building and boosting corporate, personal, community, and non-profit local and international brands from Calgary, where she is based, Ana designed, copywrote, and manages the “spark-tacular” Kids Reconnect, Couples Reconnect, and CRCG websites, including this blog. She has been an avid reader (and a decreasingly reluctant writer) since the age of four.

Looking for a fun story to read to/with your child?

Check out the whimsical Superhero Stories of each of our team members.
You can find them on our Kids Reconnect Team page.

Our team’s Superhero stories are a fun way for you to introduce your child to their “Feelings Helper” (therapist) before they visit Kids Reconnect. You can read them with/to your child or, if they are younger, you could show them the therapist’s picture and click on the interactive animations together. Reading together, you’ll see a red bird who sings, a panda who hates soup, a dragon who smiles with his eyes, a rapid red race car, a polar bear and his Mom, and many more. If your kiddo is older or prefers to read on their own, you can show them the stories for them to enjoy as well.

Our Superhero Stories show you and your kiddo how we emPOWER kids by focusing on their strengths.

Looking at the pictures of the clinic and the therapists also familiarizes kids with our space, and helps them feel more at ease, reassured, and excited about where they will be going. Therapists’ Superhero Stories also help your child relate to their therapist, their Superpowers, and the challenges they overcame as shared in their story. This encourages kids to explore and grow their own special Superpowers along their fun child counselling adventure.