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Reading is a skill that we learn as our brains develop rather than an innate ability.

To answer that question, we need to get into the nitty-gritty of neuroscience. As we learn to read, the brain develops a new network specifically designed for that task. That’s a product of the brain’s neuroplasticity – its ability to rearrange and reroute existing neuronal networks to create entirely new ones.

28 July, 2019 08:29 Share

The brain is always linking up cell clusters in novel ways. Each cluster within these configurations simultaneously works to support a budding skill like reading. That, in turn, creates a new network. That process is expedited by the brain’s ability to draw on established networks which perform adjacent functions. Reading, for example, draws on cell clusters associated with language and vision.

28 July, 2019 08:30 Share

because networks are created in response to specific needs rather than being drawn from some kind of mental masterplan, we all develop slightly different neuronal networks. What they end up looking like depends on what we’re reading and which language we’re using. That means the circuitry in the head of someone who reads in characters like a Chinese speaker will be wired differently to that of someone who’s used to an alphabet, like an English or Arabic speaker.

28 July, 2019 08:30 Share

Our deep-reading abilities are being altered by the digital age, and we need them more than ever.

That kind of empathy is unique to reading – a practice which allows us to see the world through different eyes and empathize with what someone else is going through. That’s rounded off by what Dunne dubs "coming back." Once we reclaim our habitual first-person perspective, we find that our sense of empathy has been enlarged by our experience of having tried out someone else’s point of view.

28 July, 2019 08:33 Share

Our attention is ever-more fragmented, which hinders deep reading.

Unsurprisingly, that’s not good news for our ability to read – and think – deeply. The author has witnessed the shocking effects of that loss firsthand. As she struggled to keep pace with the amount of digital data she had to produce and consume every day, she found herself spending more and more time dealing with emails. The pile of books on her bedside table, once a source of joy, began gathering dust.

28 July, 2019 08:33 Share

The outcome? Failure – she couldn’t finish the book on her first attempt. Its old charms had dissolved: the plot was infuriatingly slow, the language was far too complex, and the overall effect was one of impenetrable density. Sentences which she’d once taken in stride suddenly flummoxed her and required patient rereading. That wasn’t the book’s fault, though – her deep-reading skills were simply shot to pieces. But here’s the silver lining: after two weeks of perseverance, she eventually managed to adjust her brain and rediscover her old skills!

28 July, 2019 08:34 Share

Parents who read to their children do more for their development than screens ever could.

So how does that work? The first thing to note is that it’s a comforting, tactile experience to sit in a parent’s lap and let their words wash over you. That, in turn, cements a positive emotional association in a child’s brain with aspects of reading like attention, memory and language. Then there’s something called shared attention – the ability to focus on the same object as another person without curtailing your own curiosity. Listening to a story being read out loud is a great way of establishing that skill.

28 July, 2019 08:36 Share

Over time, kids who’ve heard the same tale again and again build up a storehouse of new words and concepts. All that accumulated knowledge comes in handy when children begin reading for themselves around the age of five. That’s because repetition allows them to focus their attention fully on different aspects of both the story itself and the language in which it’s being told. Eventually, they’ll begin making connections between the sounds and shapes of letters as well as the patterns of letters in distinct words.

28 July, 2019 08:36 Share

Adults also play an additional role which devices can’t replicate: by guiding their children’s attention, they help them join the dots between spoken and written language.

28 July, 2019 08:36 Share

There is a crisis in reading in the United States, which is why it’s crucial children of all ages receive support.

Cinthia Coletti, a philanthropist and the author of Blueprint for a Literate Nation, points out that there’s a clear causal relationship between fourth-grade reading levels and the likelihood of students dropping out of school later on. That link between literacy and social outcomes in later life is so well-established that state Bureaus of Prisons all over the United States use statistical data on reading levels to determine how many prison beds it’ll need!

28 July, 2019 08:40 Share

One of the reasons that fourth grade becomes such a sticking point for so many pupils is that the educational bar is raised at that point. Children are suddenly confronted with more challenging material which teachers assume they should be able to read without assistance.

28 July, 2019 08:41 Share

Take it from the author. Her son, Ben, was an intelligent and creative fourth-grader but he had dyslexia. Ben’s teacher took it for granted that he and his classmates had been adequately prepared to read by their previous teachers and didn’t devote class time to working on reading skills. As a result, Ben and other struggling students felt frustrated and started acting out. The situation could easily have been averted if the teacher had been adequately prepared to deal with literacy issues. That, however, wasn’t the case. In the end, most of these kids’ parents decided to send them to different schools where greater attention was paid to their individual needs. Unfortunately, millions of parents and children just don’t have that option.

28 July, 2019 08:42 Share

To prepare for the future, we should nurture children’s brains with the best of both worlds.

When it comes to reading, for example, non-digital sources are much more effective at giving kids the tools they need to think for themselves. Physical books, the author argues, should be the principal focus during the first years of schooling.

28 July, 2019 08:42 Share

One way of encouraging that is to revert to pen and paper and have kids write down their thoughts by hand – a nifty trick which forces them to take things slowly and take the time to consider their ideas about what they’ve read.

28 July, 2019 08:43 Share

Protecting our third life as readers preserves our ability to turn knowledge into wisdom.

Like members of Aristotle’s ideal society, readers must also balance their three lives if they wish to be their best selves. Here’s how it works. The first life is all about learning and gathering knowledge – think of looking something up on Google or in a dictionary. In the second mode, readers relish the things which entertain them like testing their wits as they follow with the deductions of a sleuth in a murder mystery or discovering fascinating historical facts. This is ultimately where we find an escape from the pressures of everyday life. Taken together, these two lives lead to the third: the life of contemplation. This is a deeply personal realm where we let the things we read – whatever genre they are – guide our thoughts about the world around us. Spending time in this third zone allows us to translate the knowledge and experiences gained in our first and second lives into wisdom.

28 July, 2019 08:45 Share

The third life is a delicate flower that needs to be carefully cultivated, and that takes time, patience and effort – all things in desperately short supply in our fast-paced, digital world! It was this realization which led billionaire investor Warren Buffet to tell Bill Gates that he should leave plenty of free space in his calendar. After Gates credited him with this discovery, Buffett pulled a small calendar out of his pocket. "Time," he said, "is the one thing no one can buy."

28 July, 2019 08:46 Share