What Effects Does Reading Have on Teenagers?

Encourage your teen to read for fun rather than watching television or playing on the computer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, teens and young adults spend 60 percent less time reading for pleasure than other age groups. Reading has a variety of benefits, which include brain development. Share the advantages of reading with your teenagers to boost their mental capacity.

  1. Vocabulary and Language

    • Reading introduces teenagers to new works to expand their vocabulary and develop their use of language. Different authors have different styles of writing, so reading a variety of different books, magazines and other materials shows teens how to use words correctly in a sentence. If your teen does not know a word, tell him to look it up so he continually builds his understanding of the English language. By expanding his vocabulary, he can also learn how to communicate his thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

    College Exams

    • College admission exams include vocabulary and comprehension sections. With expanded knowledge from reading, students have a better chance of scoring higher on these portions of the exam. Encourage your teen to read challenging material, such as "The New York Times" and "National Geographic," to improve her comprehension. Kaplan, a company dedicated to test preparation, recommends that teens read SAT score-raising classics such as ̶0;Frankenstein,̶1; ̶0;The War of the Worlds̶1; and ̶0;The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe.̶1;

    Learning

    • Reading fiction and nonfiction provides teens with new perspectives, ideas and information. They can learn about different cultures, time periods, people, science and a countless number of other subjects. For example, teens can learn about important historical figures to complement what they are learning about earlier societies in school. Science fiction novels allow teens̵7; imaginations to run wild, which can benefit them when studying creative writing. Encourage teens to read a variety of books to find ones that appeal to them.

    Memory

    • Reading can help improve your teenager̵7;s memory, which can benefit his performance in school, future careers and his life skills in general. Reading requires more concentration to understand, imagine and comprehend than seeing an image or listening to someone speak. According to an Oprah.com article, Ken Pugh, Ph.D., president and director of research for Haskins Laboratories, stated that reading helps improve memory by stimulating neural circuits in the brain, which is more challenging for the mind than processing images or speech.

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